G20 nations discuss need for summit to address impact of rising grain prices

Leading members of the Group of 20 nations are prepared to trigger an emergency meeting to address soaring grain prices caused by the worst US drought in more than half a century and poor crops from the Black Sea bread basket.

France, the United States and G20 president Mexico will hold a conference call at the end of this month to consider whether an emergency global meeting is required. The aim would be to avoid a repetition of the food price spike that triggered riots in poorer countries in 2008.

Yet even as the third grain price surge in four years stirs new fears about food supply and inflation, many say the world's powers are no better prepared to rein in runaway prices. Apart from a global grain database, which is yet to be launched, and the Rapid Response Forum authorities are considering convening for the first time, the G20 has few tools.

Instead, it must intervene through influence, perhaps urging the US to ease its ethanol policy in response to the crisis - difficult only months before a presidential election that may be won or lost in Midwestern farm states - or urging Russia not to impose an export ban, as it did two years ago.

The United Nation's food agency stepped up pressure on the US on Friday to change its biofuel policies, arguing it was more important to grow crops for food rather than fuel.

"Beyond words, expect little from the G20 on rising food prices," said Simon Evenett, a former World Bank official who is now professor of international trade and economic development at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. He described the G20's record on trade as "feeble".