The world's biggest food companies have paid out nearly £15bn to shareholders as spiralling prices leave desperate families struggling to afford to eat, openDemocracy can reveal.
Four of the five multinationals—which between them own thousands of popular brands such as Twinings, Kingsmill and Cheerios—have also signalled that consumers should expect further price rises. Only ADM has not. Frédéric Mousseau, an economist who has worked for international relief agencies including Oxfam and Action Against Hunger, told openDemocracy:"How can we accept that a handful of corporations record such huge profits while you have billions of people who are already struggling to survive?"
This month, ABF's chief executive George G Weston, who will receive £2.2m in remuneration this year, told investors at the firm's annual results presentation:"Revenues benefiting from price increases and operating profit was solid [sic]. We've had to recover a huge amount of input cost from customers that don't like giving you price rises and we've done that job really well—but it's not finished.
"These corporations are very adept at rhetoric that doesn't have a lot of substance," Philip Howard, a professor at the department of community sustainability at Michigan State University, told openDemocracy.
Why would I ever invest in a food company that doesn’t pay dividends.
How much industrial crap do you eat and call it food?
It's Capitalism