Analysis of Price Trends of Crude Oil, Agricultural Commodities and Policy Choices of Biofuels in Developing Countries

In recent years, the prices of agricultural commodities in international market have been changing dramatically. This is a very critical issue which is related to a nation’s food security, energy security and sustainable development of its economy. The prices of crude oil and agricultural commodities are not issues isolated from each other; actually, the relationship between them becomes closer due to biofuels. What’s the relationship between them? This paper tested the relationship between the crude oil and agricultural commodities prices in the international market by Granger causality test, we found that there are close relationship between them, and the fluctuations of agricultural commodities prices is the results of crude oil price changes. Therefore, we determined that because of the scarcity of crude oil resources, the rising of crude oil price is inevitable. According to the price trends of crude oil and agricultural commodities in international market, developing countries should make their own policies of biofuels referring to the experience of developed countries, while basing on their resources and socio-economic conditions.   Key words: Biofuels policy, price of crude oil, agricultural commodities prices, developing countries, granger causality test.

[1]  Chi-Chung Chen,et al.  Modeling the relationship between the oil price and global food prices , 2010 .

[2]  Luanne Lohr,et al.  Food versus fuel: What do prices tell us? , 2010 .

[3]  M. Khanna,et al.  Competitiveness of Brazilian Sugarcane Ethanol Compared to US Corn Ethanol , 2010 .

[4]  Nicholas E. Korres,et al.  Can we meet targets for biofuels and renewable energy in transport given the constraints imposed by policy in agriculture and energy , 2010 .

[5]  Pernille H. Christensen,et al.  Socio-economic aspects of different biofuel development pathways. , 2010 .

[6]  E. L. L. Rovere,et al.  Biofuels and Sustainable Energy Development in Brazil , 2011 .

[7]  P. Ciaian,et al.  Interdependencies in the Energy-Bioenergy-Food Price Systems: A Cointegration Analysis , 2009 .

[8]  A. Esmaeili,et al.  Assessing the effect of oil price on world food prices: Application of principal component analysis , 2011 .

[9]  J. Musango,et al.  Biofuels and sustainability in Africa , 2011 .

[10]  A. Ajanovic Biofuels versus food production: Does biofuels production increase food prices? , 2011 .

[11]  Saban Nazlioglu,et al.  World oil and agricultural commodity prices: Evidence from nonlinear causality , 2011 .

[12]  Hong Yang,et al.  Land and water requirements of biofuel and implications for food supply and the environment in China , 2009 .

[13]  A. Archer,et al.  Drivers leading to higher food prices: biofuels are not the main factor , 2009, In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology - Plant.

[14]  Chuangzhi Wu,et al.  The development of bioenergy technology in China. , 2010 .

[15]  K. Elliott Biofuels and the Food Price Crisis: A Survey of the Issues , 2008 .

[16]  A. Faaij,et al.  The economical and environmental performance of miscanthus and switchgrass production and supply chains in a European setting , 2009 .