Food shortages to hit 28 poor countries, FAO says

MILAN, July 17 (Reuters) A slowdown in local cereals output and high international prices are likely to trigger food shortages in 28 poor countries around the world this year, the United Nation's food agency said today.

In Africa, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho face the worst main season harvests ever, with maize crops falling between 40 and 60 per cent after prolonged dry spells and erratic rainfalls, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

In Zimbabwe alone, where hyperinflation surpassed 4,500 percent in May and prices have been rising while food output fell, food security of more than 4 million vulnerable people was hit, FAO said in a report on crop prospects and food situation.

In North Korea, the food supply outlook remained precarious, but the first shipment of a 400,000 tonne of rice food aid from South Korea reportedly arrived in late June, FAO said.

While world cereals output is heading to record highs of 2,121 million tonnes in 2007, production in low-income food-deficit countries is expected to rise by 1.2 per cent from last year, below the population growth rate, FAO said.

If the largest producers with bumper crops, China and India, were excluded, overall cereal output of the rest of low-income countries is forecast to fall slightly from last year, it said.

In Morocco, drought this year has devastated the cereal crop, estimated at just one-quarter of last year's level.

In Southern Africa, the main cereal harvest has been mixed, with crops hit heavily by drought in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland, but record or above average harvests in Malawi, Angola, Mozambique, Madagascar and Zambia, the agency said.

In Western Africa, irregular rains have delayed the cropping season in the Sahel region. In Eastern Africa, 2007 cereal crops outlook was favourable in most countries, with the exception of Somalia where irregular rains have hit output.

In the Far East, the timely arrival of the seasonal monsoon rains would boost the main 2007 coarse grain and rice crops.

REUTERS LPB RN2107