United States Largest Food Aid Donor

VANCOUVER - Oct 24/03 - STAT -- The United States is clearly the world's largest food aid donor, contributing more money on a per capita basis than any other country on the planet. In fact the United States consistently provides more than half the World Food Program's annual budget.

This is clearly reflected in the importance of USDA PL-480 food aid demand to processors in the United States and the impact it can have on world markets. However, there is a smugness in the criticism because it masks a lack or moral and political will help the world's hungry to the same degree as Americans.

Probably the Canadian industry is the most critical. But, they do not belong to a nation which shirks its international responsibilities. On average, Canada is the third largest donor nation to the World Food Program, behind the United States and Japan and just before Great Britain.

This year, it is the fourth largest individual nation donor, giving U.S. $86.5 million to Britain's $110.3 million, Japan's $119,8 million and the whopping $1.24 billion provided by the United States.

Following is the list of countries and regions which provide more then 0.1% of the World Food Program's annual budget.

                      World Food Program Donations
                      (000 United States Dollars)
Country                  2001        2002        2003     Five-year Averages
U.S.A.              1,203,069     933,566   1,244,394     979,923      53.87%
Western Europe        444,516     468,874     412,088     486,714      26.76%
European Commission   125,463     178,594     160,600     150,005       8.25%
Japan                  91,934      93,122     119,808     134,537       7.40%
Canada                 38,584      47,753      86,478      63,674       3.50%
UK                     27,620      95,730     100,298      61,627       3.39%
Netherlands            59,478      58,793      49,235      57,062       3.14%
Germany                58,088      60,308      45,838      52,862       2.91%
Denmark                39,385      40,047      34,300      40,511       2.23%
Norway                 36,809      45,783      44,916      40,471       2.22%
Australia              35,676      50,304      14,523      40,025       2.20%
Sweden                 27,711      31,159      30,558      29,724       1.63%
Italy                  36,163      38,130      33,192      29,652       1.63%
France                 35,883      14,089      14,836      23,734       1.30%
Switzerland            19,126      24,155      19,687      21,825       1.20%
Finland                14,473      17,464      15,481      15,596       0.86%
Algeria                                10      10,215      11,214       0.62%
Korea, Rep. of         16,756      16,191      16,810      10,180       0.56%
Ireland                 7,317      10,360       9,910       8,050       0.44%
Belgium                 5,294       8,288       6,692       7,468       0.41%
Kenya                   8,541      12,140         958       6,133       0.34%
South Africa              203          43      20,158       4,163       0.23%
India                               7,444       8,375       3,354       0.18%
Spain                   3,946       2,666       3,911       3,258       0.18%
Saudi Arabia            2,156       4,246                   3,061       0.17%
OPEC Fund                             165      10,900       2,351       0.13%
Russia                                         11,000       2,200       0.12%
African Dev. Bank         500         745       4,500       2,149       0.12%
 Total Commitments  1,902,426   1,808,126   2,132,697   1,818,987     100.00%
BASED ON World Food Programme Data