Rome: Skyrocketing world rice prices that have tripled in Asia over the course of the year may come down, but overall food prices will remain high for years to come, a UN food agency warned today.

High oil prices, growing demand, flawed trade policies, panic buying and speculation have sent food prices soaring worldwide, trigging protests from Africa to Asia and raising fears that millions more will go hungry and suffer malnutrition.

Today, tens of thousands of workers in Senegal from teachers to tax officials, fishery and port workers stayed home as part of a strike staged by unions to protest the spiraling cost of rice, fuel and other basic goods.

Surging food prices have also sparked riots in Haiti and fed worries about supplies in the Philippines.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation said it had some good news: The world prices of most agriculture commodities have started to drop.

The bad news: The prices are unlikely to fall back to pre-2007 levels, the agency said in a report today.

"We are facing the risk that the number of hungry will increase by many more millions of people," said Hafez Ghanem, assistant director-general of the FAO.

Conditions on the global rice market could ease as new crops are harvested around the world. But price pressures will remain high until at least October or November, when the bulk of this year s paddy crops reach the market, the report said.

"Stock levels are low and you need several good seasons to replenish them," Ghanem said. "There will be some improvement, but we don't expect a major change."

Source : PTI