Food Crisis: Credit-Starved Turn To Barter

From The Financial Times:

Nations turn to barter deals to secure food

By Javier Blas in London
Published: January 26 2009 23:32 | Last updated: January 26 2009 23:32

Countries struggling to secure credit have resorted to barter and secretive government-to-government deals to buy food, with some contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

In a striking example of how the global financial crisis and high food prices have strained the finances of poor and middle-income nations, countries including Russia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Morocco say they have signed or are discussing inter-government and barter deals to import commodities from rice to vegetable oil.