The head of Nestle, the world's largest food company, warns the world will have to learn to live with higher commodity prices, saying chronic underinvestment in agriculture is to blame.
Although explosive growth in emerging markets would help the company manage the effect of food price inflation, such concerns would become more acute if growth were to slow down, said Paul Bulcke, Nestle's chief executive, at an investor day in Vevey, Switzerland.
"Raw material prices are here to stay," he said. "Don't think you can sit it out."
However, the net effect of higher commodity prices, especially in agriculture, would be greater investment and a spur to research and development, Mr Bulcke added.
"Headwinds in raw material costs … are preconditions to have food security in the future." Agriculture accounted for only 1.5 per cent of total research and development spending worldwide, he said. "Agriculture is something that had been badly treated. Raw materials went down during the last 30 to 40 years."
Food costs have soared during the past 12 months, with the UN food and agriculture organisation's Food Price Index hitting 238 points in February, the highest level since records began in 1990.
The index has since settled at 232 points for last month, but food prices remain higher than at any point since 2008, the previous peak.
Unrest in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, some of which has been attributed to the rise in food prices, also took its toll on Nestle.
The company closed some of its factories in Egypt, where it employs 2,800 staff, during the final week of the country's revolution early this year, said Frits van Dijk, the company's executive vice president and zone director for Asia, Oceania, Africa and Middle East.
"In spite in all of this, Egypt is a market that has shown tremendous growth since the revolution," he said. Nestle is increasing production in the Middle East, having opened a new regional headquarters and production plant in Dubai in December.
At the time, the company said it planned to invest US$400 million (Dh1.46 billion) in the region during the next three years.
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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