New FAO Director General says he wants to help food importing developing countries address high food prices

In a news conference on Monday, Jose Graziano da Silva, the newly elected head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said he wants to do more to help poor countries deal with volatile food prices, Reuters reports.

"The world will still have problems especially poor countries that need to import most of their food," he said. "This is one of the things I would like us to get much more involved in. For coming years ... FAO could play an important role to help these countries deal with price volatility," Graziano da Silva said. He "said high food prices were not just a temporary imbalance and would persist for more than a few years. 'This is related to financial markets and until we reach a more stable financial situation worldwide, commodities prices will reflect that'" (Hornby, 6/27).

"Mr. Graziano da Silva said one of the very first actions he undertook after his election was to speak with Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), 'to set a common agenda,'" the U.N. News Centre writes (6/27).