IMF - Half of Food Price Increase due to Biofuels

The IMF recently estimated that the shift of crops out of the food supply to produce biofuels accounts for almost half of the recent increases in the global food prices. That has led to calls from anti-poverty groups to rethink government policies to boost biofuel production at a time that the IMF estimates that global food prices rose by 43 percent in the 12 months ending in March.

The US disputes this but states: "ethanol production is a significant contributor to increases in corn prices"

All agree there are additional factors including: increased demand from developing countries, especially China and India, rising energy costs and draughts in some crop producing countries