VZCZCXRO2691
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0328/01 0941655
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031655Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7834
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5148
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000328 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USDA for FAS: DEVANS 
NAIROBI for FAS: KSMITH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR EAID ECON SOCI CG
SUBJECT: Impact of Rising Food Prices in DRC 
 
REF: 06 Kinshasa 1182 
 
¶1. (U) Summary.  Food availability in the DRC is already poor, with 
high levels of malnutrition.  Food price statistics indicate a 25 
percent increase in food prices over the last six months, in 
addition to an overall tripling of food prices since the end of 
¶2000.  Substitution from imported grains and oils to locally 
produced cassava (manioc) and palm oil seems to be one coping 
mechanism.  Local food purchases by the UN World Food Program may 
help, but even this program shows the poor availability of food in 
the DRC.  End summary. 
 
------------------------------ 
Food Availability Already Poor 
------------------------------ 
 
¶2. (U) Food availability in the DRC is very poor, with high rates of 
malnutrition throughout the country due to conflict, displacement, 
plant disease, severely degraded transportation and infrastructure, 
lack of credit, high levels of corruption and banditry, chronic 
underinvestment in research, and other factors.  Over the past 15 
years, food insecurity has increased significantly: between 1991 and 
2002, the number of undernourished people tripled, from 12 to 36 
million, and now includes approximately 72 percent of the 60 million 
population.  During this same period, average per capita caloric 
intake declined from 2170 to 1610 calories per day. Preliminary 
results from the recent Demographic Health Survey completed in DRC 
show that 46 percent of children under 5 are malnourished.  The 
United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) categorizes 
the DRC as a low-income food-deficit country.  In urban markets such 
as Kinshasa and Lubumbashi, rising world prices for staple 
commodities can only further negatively impact this situation. 
Congolese media regularly issue anecdotal reports about increasing 
food prices and the country's inability to feed itself. 
 
-------------------- 
Food Price Increases 
-------------------- 
 
¶3. (U) There are a number of measures of food price increases 
available in the DRC.  Both the IMF and the Congolese Central Bank 
(BCC) have economic units that conduct market basket surveys in 
order to determine inflation rates.  The official DRC inflation rate 
for 2007, as measured by the IMF and BCC, was just under ten 
percent.  The GDRC National Statistics Institute (INS) and the 
Embassy Kinshasa Economic Section also conduct market basket 
surveys.  The Economic Section survey has found that over the period 
October 1 to March 31, 2008, the price of the average Kinshasan's 
food basket has increased by about 25 percent, with food costs more 
than tripling between December 2000 and December 2007.  (Note: The 
embassy market basket survey begun in December 2000 was indexed then 
at 100, and now stands at over 300 for basic food items.  Inflation 
was often very high prior to 2003, sometimes in triple digits.  End 
note.)  INS statistics track more closely to Embassy findings than 
to IMF and BCC statistics, and show food price increases and 
inflation rates for 2007 and since October 2007 of 36 and 20 
percent, respectively, with close agreement on food price increases 
during those periods.  Recent increases in inflation and food prices 
in Kinshasa are largely attributable to rising fuel and 
transportation costs, with double digit increases observed in both 
October 2007 and again in March 2008. 
 
--------------------------- 
Bread Still Popular, but... 
--------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Conflict and economic decline has transformed the urban 
economy from a largely formal sector to about a 90 percent informal 
sector today.  Many people have become dependent upon daily, untaxed 
sources of income (as opposed to monthly salaries) and are 
increasingly dependent upon day-to-day income and subsistence 
purchases, especially in the form of bread. Because bread, 
especially for breakfast, has now become a relatively larger 
proportion of the urban diet, as the price for wheat and corn 
increases, cassava flour could be substituted for wheat flour and 
corn meal in increasing proportion to produce bread.  (Note: during 
certain periods of the 1980s, this experiment in "cassava bread" was 
tried and failed.  End note.)  As with public transportation, where 
the GDRC-fixed taxi and bus fares were circumvented by shortening 
routes, the price of bread has been maintained only through an 
apparent reduction in portion size. 
 
----------------------- 
 
KINSHASA 00000328  002 OF 002 
 
 
Let Them Eat Cassava... 
----------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) In the DRC, the primary food source has been and largely 
still is cassava. Though all the cassava consumed in the DRC is 
produced in-country, the price of cassava has also increased in line 
with other basic food commodities measured (approximately 25 percent 
over the last six months).  This is likely due to increasing 
transportation costs and increased demand as the urban population 
substitutes for the more expensive rice and corn (maize) that are 
also staples of the average Kinshasan diet.  For the same price, 
approximately USD 50, you can buy twice as much cassava (100 kilos, 
or 220 pounds) as rice or maize (50 kilos, 110 pounds), making 
cassava the cheapest calories. (Note: DRC cassava production, like 
the caloric intake of its people, has also decreased significantly 
over the last 15 years (as elsewhere in Africa), due primarily to 
the cassava mosaic virus.  Luckily, another staple of the Kinshasan 
diet is the cassava leaf that often accompanies the cooked 
cassava-flour dough, since the leaves are relatively high in 
vitamins, minerals and protein.  End note.)  In rural areas, where 
consumption is largely limited to cassava produced by subsistence 
farms, there should be lesser impacts of price increases. 
 
-------------------------- 
 ...and Cook with Palm Oil 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) As the price for vegetable oil increases worldwide, and, 
parenthetically, has investors looking seriously at rehabilitating 
abandoned palm oil plantations in the DRC, there seems to be an 
increased local demand for artisanally produced palm oil. (Note: The 
once thriving industrial production and processing of palm oil in 
the DRC, which reached almost half a million tons in the 1980s, has 
been reduced to the point where domestic DRC producers of refined 
oil, soap, and cosmetics are forced to import palm oil from Malaysia 
and Indonesia (reftel) End note.)  Meanwhile, perhaps due to these 
higher imported vegetable oil prices and resultant substitution, 
unrefined domestic palm oil prices have increased faster than any 
other commodity over the last six months but it continues to be a 
better buy than imported, refined oils. 
 
-------------------- 
Local Food Purchases 
-------------------- 
 
¶7. The UN World Food Program (WFP) has a mandate and money for local 
purchase of food in areas of excess production to feed the hungry in 
areas of need.  WFP/DRC was able to purchase 5,638 metric tons (MT, 
about 2,200 pounds) of local food commodities in 2007 and has 
already purchased 2,534 MT in 2008. WFP buys from large scale 
farmers, traders, and NGOs that organize small scale farmers.  The 
commodities purchased are maize (2/3 of total) and beans (1/3 of 
total).  Regionally (Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa 
and Tanzania), WFP/DRC has been able to purchase a total of 32,994 
MT, primarily maize.  This relatively low level of in-country 
purchases is another indicator of poor food availability in the 
DRC. 
 
¶8. (U) Comment.  The Congolese people in general, and Kinshasans in 
particular, know how to get along despite hard times.  One old joke 
goes: "What did we do before there were candles?" Answer: "We had 
electricity."  The same might someday be said about cassava bread 
and wheat bread, or palm oil and U.S. vegetable oil.  The most 
disturbing aspect of this food price trend is that, even with 
substitution as a coping mechanism, there are those who are having a 
difficult time putting food on the table. Recent events in Burkina 
Faso, Cameroon, and elsewhere suggest that there is only so much 
elasticity in hunger, and that eventually the population may decide 
that it has not had enough...to eat. End comment. 
 
Garvelink