Top agriculture experts yesterday warned against further rises in food prices, calling for effective measures to ease the impact on society.

Huang Jikun, director of the Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said agricultural commodity price rises on the global market are the major reason for current food price hikes.

Food prices have soared on the global market over the past two years, and China is being increasingly influenced by global economic trends, Huang said while addressing the Ninth China Development Forum in Beijing, a high-level forum held annually by the State Council Development Research Center (DRC).

However, Ma Xiaohe, vice-president of the Academy of Macroeconomic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission, told the same forum that the huge liquidity in the market is the foremost reason for the food price rises, as China now has sufficient grain supplies and there is no reason for price rises as a result of supply problems.

Despite the diverse reasons given for agricultural product price rises, experts agree that they will keep rising.

The cost of agricultural production has also risen, which is further influenced by fewer natural resources and the heavy cost of environmental protection, Ma said.

Meanwhile, the country is expected to see increased demand for meat products, which will drive up demand for grain.

Han Jun, director-general of the rural economy research department under the DRC, added that the country is rapidly entering a phase of reliance on overseas food markets, with 70 percent of edible oil coming from imports.

However, those experts hold that food price hikes will not generate overall inflation, though food price rises contributed to 93 percent of the 4.8 percent rise in the consumer price index last year.

"Food price increases will not trigger excessive inflation as long as China can flexibly tighten its credit supply and maintain better control over its macroeconomic conditions," Han said.

Some experts hold that current food price hikes are simply because agricultural commodity prices had become too low and hurt farmers' interests.

(China Daily March 24, 2008)