Ministers need to take "the use of food as a weapon off the screen," Emery Koenig, senior vice president for Cargill, told reporters at a meeting of top trade officials from the 21 members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
In a separate statement, a private sector advisory group urged APEC "to renounce all export restrictions and end existing export restrictions on all food products."
They also called for the establishment of a permanent public-private partnership within APEC to bolster food security, by working on issues such as reducing waste and harmonizing food safety standards.
The trade minister meeting wraps up later on Friday, but work on the issue is expected to continue up to the annual leaders' summit this November in Hawaii.
Export embargoes and other actions taken by 33 countries in 2007 and 2008 in response to drought and other weather problems that drove up prices had a market-distorting effect that lingered today, Koenig said.
That included APEC member Russia, which at the time was the world's third-largest wheat exporter.
"It's clear the world has the capacity to feed itself. We just need to make sure we're lined up properly in terms of the policies," Koenig said.
Scott Price, chief executive of Wal-Mart Asia, said the feeding of the world's growing population in coming decades would require a "far more integrated" global food system.
Conflicting standards and testing requirements for food products around the world are "very, very inefficient" and lead to higher prices for consumers, he said.
"We have a scarce resource on the planet in terms of incremental arable land" so food needs to flow from one country to another with as few barriers as possible, he said. (Reuters)
