SEASONS .FOR ADVERSE FOOD SITUATION

Chronicle (Levin), 10 July 1947, Page 5

SEASONS .FOR ADVERSE FOOD SITUATION

Received Wednesday, 7 p.m. PARIS, July 9. "The reduetion in grain production in importing countries, as a result of the hard winter of 1946/47, is much greater than the increase in American crops, " said the seeretary-general of the International Emergency Food Council, Alr. Dennis Fitzgerald, on the eve of the world cereals conference which opens today. Alr. Fitzgerald said that whereas the United States would be able to export more wheat, there was no assurance that it would be able to export such large quantities of other cereals as it did in 1946. Present indications were that the total Ameri- 1 can export of cereals in the year ahead would be lower than in the year just ended. He said the severe winter particularly affected crop production in Franee, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Italv, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany. Factors such as drought and | rust damage had contributed in areas outside Europe, to a dwindling of the | world grain supplies. j The primary reasons for the present i adverse world food situation were: — ' rirstiy, a ten per cent rtse m world population since 1939; secondly, a poor crop production in many countries due to the winter, lack of fertilisers, machinery and labour; thirdly, many countries short of cereals were also short of meat, fats, oils, pulses, rice and dairy produce. Alr. Fitzgerald said the cereals conference had been called because of the seriousness of the situation. One of the conference 's major tasks would be to decide the allocation of supplies while taking into consideration the utilisation of indigenous^ harvests. Alr. Strachey and the United States Secretary of Agriculture, Alr. Clinton Anderson, arrived in Paris to attend the session today.