Latest Economy of Africa Stories
MIAMI, May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- A change in Chinese meat consumption habits since 1995 is diverting eight billion bushels of grain per year to livestock feed and could empty global grain stocks by September 2010, according to a new study from Biofuels Digest. The study, "Meat vs Fuel: Grain use in the U.S. and China, 1995-2008," concluded that a complete shutdown of the U.S. ethanol industry would extend the deadline only until 2013. "It's not food, it's not fuel, it's China," said Jim Lane,...
The head of the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported several food riots that have struck impoverished countries around the world, and they believe shortages and high food prices could fan the flames.Violent protests in a handful of poor countries are due to a combination of high oil and fuel prices, rising demand for food in a wealthier Asia, the use of farmland and crops for biofuels, bad weather and speculation on futures markets that have pushed up food...
By Marie-Louise GumuchianDAKAR (Reuters) - Nearly $240 million is needed to feed at least 10 million people this year in West Africa, where food shortages risk being overshadowed by emergencies elsewhere on the continent, the United Nations said on Monday.Several countries in West Africa suffered shortages last year after crops were ravaged by drought and locusts.In Niger, the worst-affected, aid groups scrambled to tackle a food crisis affecting more than 3 million people."Despite a...
By Andrew Cawthorne NAIROBI (Reuters) - Drayton Maina looks sharp behind the wheel of his car in a gray suit, colorful tie and shiny leather shoes. It would be hard to tell that the Kenyan driver -- like millions of his fellow Africans -- is dressed from head-to-toe in second-hand clothes brought in from the West. "The only thing you can't get in a Kenyan second-hand market is a wife!" he jokes, picking out a fleecy top to counter Nairobi's morning chill for a mere 200 shillings at the...
By Paul de Bendern SIRTE, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafiurged African leaders on Monday not to go begging to a summitof rich nations this week, telling them to embraceself-reliance and reject conditional aid from the West. "Begging will not make the future of Africa, (instead) itcreates a greater gap between the great ones and the smallones," he told the opening session of a summit of the 53-nationAfrican Union (AU) in Libya. "We are not going to beg at the doorsteps to...
