India,China did not cause food crisis: BRIC

Rubbishing claims by western leaders that the current food crisis was caused by the growing consumption in India and China, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) foreign ministers today sought a 'just' global economy keeping in view interests of all nations.

"There are multiple reasons for the current food crisis, primarily because of recent cyclones in Bangladesh and Myanmar, which destroyed the entire rice crops in these countries, also exporters of rice. Now they have to import rice instead of exporting it," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said during the deliberations on the issue at the ministerial meet in Yekaterinburg (Russia).

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reminded that the share of China's food imports in the global food trade was only two per cent and his country was also the donor of food to needy nations.

Blasting the claims that production of bio-fuel by his country was among the reasons for the food crisis, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim pointed out: "Brazil has been producing bio-fuel for more than 30 years, but there was no food crisis in the world."

He blamed the agriculture subsidies to their farmers by the developed nations for the miserable state of agriculture in the developing nations.