The food price crisis is caused largely by greed and speculation rather than food shortages, the head of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, said yesterday.

Spiralling food costs - called a "silent tsunami" by the World Food Program - have ignited fury and a rash of protests from Haiti to Somalia to Bangladesh.

Exporting countries have curbed shipments to ensure domestic supplies and tame inflation. 

"These increases in food prices are not the consequence of food shortages, it's the consequence of human greed that is putting at risk the lives of millions of men, women and children," Jay Naidoo told Reuters.

"There are companies that are making super profits on this issue."

The root causes of the more than 40-per-cent rise in food prices in the last year are disputed. Experts point to strong demand from Asian emerging markets, adverse weather in some producer countries and increased use of biofuels.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it would give up to $500-million (U.S.) in emergency loans to regional economies hit hardest by the crisis and double investment in the farm sector to $2-billion in 2009.

After four days of talks in Madrid, governments remained split on whether they should use export bans and market intervention to ensure one billion poor Asians living on less than $2 a day do not slip back into hunger and malnutrition.

"The best way to address the immediate difficulty is to strengthen social safety nets through targeted support for the poor rather than generalized food subsidies or trade measures or price controls," ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda said.

Mr. Naidoo, of the Southern Africa development bank, said on the sidelines of a conference on malnutrition in Brussels that governments and world bodies should take concerted action to control surging food prices.

BYLINE: Reuters