Jürgen Fitschen, co-CEO of Deutsche Bank told at Grüne Woche that after a thorough examination they came to the conclusion that the increase in food prices wasn’t the result of speculation in raw materials. Estimation is that on the world market of food raw materials investors and brokers make deals on many times more products than the volume of goods that actually exists.

Last year Deutsche Bank stopped selling agricultural investment products, because the prevailing public opinion was that they might be the cause of rising prices for farm commodities. The bank studied the circumstances and found that prices remained volatile even when there were no agricultural investment products on the financial market. Germany’s Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture Ilse Aigner didn’t agree with Mr Fitschen and emphasised that such financial investments had no place on the food raw materials market. In her view those who don’t take into consideration the fact that 900 million people are starving worldwide lack compassion and act irresponsibly. FAO data indicates that if the prices measured between 2002 and 2004 are considered 100 percent, prices in the 2000-2007 period were moving in the 90-130 percent range, but after 2007 prices were oscillating between 110 and 170 percent. Jürgen Abraham, president of the Federation of German Food and Drink Industries also talked about speculation at a press conference and stated that the food sector is under strong pressure from growing and at the same time volatile raw materials prices. Because of this he forecasted a 3-4 percent increase in the price of groceries in Germany this year (after the 2.8-percent food inflation of 2012). He added that the 13 most important food raw materials became 2.4 percent more expensive on average last year – and this is an important factor as 40 percent of food production costs are generated by agricultural raw materialsn.