Farmers doomed to pay price for export restrictions
Surging prices for agricultural commodities - and the fear of shortages at home - have prompted some countries to impose restrictions on exports. But their moves threaten to prolong the current global food crisis - and even exacerbate it. Countries such as Argentina, Kazakhstan, India and Vietnam have stopped their farmers selling crops abroad or taxed exports heavily in an effort to keep local markets well-supplied and local prices for those crops low.