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Burkina Faso: Authorities fear renewed violence if cereal prices remain high

OUAGADOUGOU, 15 January 2009 (IRIN) - Burkina Faso's trade minister has warned cereal producers the country may face violent street demonstrations again if cereal prices do not fall.

In early 2008 Burkina Faso was rocked by street protests after food and basic goods prices increased by more than half.

Despite a 2008 surplus cereal production of 700,000 tons - in part due to government subsidies implemented after the price riots -  in January 2009 the price for a 100kg-bag of locally-produced corn increased by 20 percent in Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, according to the non-profit Afrique Verte.

"Consumers are very sensitive to high prices because most of them consume local cereals," said Minister of Trade Mamadou Sanou.

He and the Minister of Agriculture, Laurent Sedogo, met with cereal merchants and producers on 14 January to discuss how to bring down cereal prices after steep increases in December and January.

According to Afrique Verte, which monitors regional cereal costs, in December and January price increases in Burkina Faso reached unprecedented levels of 20 percent for corn and 14 percent for millet and sorghum.

"If these prices do not come down, we are going to have a repeat of the social unrest from 2008. This is not good for the country, so we need to safeguard peace," Sanou warned producers.

Higher demand

Local cereal merchants and farmers' associations said buyers from neighbouring countries who poured in at the end of the 2008 harvest have driven up demand ? and prices.

The price of a 100kg-bag of corn crept up from US$15 in November 2008 to its current January price of $32, according to Moussa Dagano, a farmer from Sissili in western Burkina Faso.

"The Ghanaians buy at higher prices and since the demand is high, farmers hold on to their products to get better prices," Dagano explained.

Another reason surplus production has not brought down prices is because farmers and local private businessmen are withholding cereal to rebuild their stocks, which have plummeted to their lowest levels in a decade, according to both producers and the government.

Agriculture Minister Sedogo said fluctuating rainfall levels caused by climate change  are to blame for poor harvests in prior years and the near-depletion of cereal stocks.

He appealed to farmers: "Free the stocks and feed the populations."

"I can assure you the government is going to renew last year's subsidies, and even improve them," Sedogo told the farmers. Following the price riots, the government authorised emergency subsidies worth almost $28 million for fertilisers, seeds and farming equipment.

When asked if the government would force a cereal price reduction, Trade Minister Sanou said the government is "avoid[ing] strong-arm tactics", choosing instead to "encourage farmers to produce, and to support them so they will act in the best interests of the country."

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Topics: Security situation,