Saturday, July 22, 2006

China becomes third-largest food donor

China became the world's third-largest food aid donor in 2005, the U.N. World Food Program agency said Thursday.

Donations from China tripled to 636,000 tons with most of the aid going to ally North Korea. Guinea Bissau, Liberia and Sri Lanka were among the other countries that recied donations, the World Food Program said in its annual report.

Although China still has major portions of undeveloped countryside it has mostly solved its own once-dire food shortages for which it received World Food Program aid itself.

A Chinese worker prepares relief goods bound for Pakistan at a Beijing airport Monday, in this Oct. 10, 2005, file photo. The goods were intended for victims of a massive earthquake in Pakistan. China became the world's third largest food aid donor in 2005, the same year it stopped receiving assistance from the World Food Program, the U.N. agency said Thursday. Donations from China almost tripled to 577,000 metric tons (636,000 tons) and accounted for more than half of the rise in overall food aid donations last year. (AP Photo, Pool, File )
A Chinese worker prepares relief goods bound for Pakistan at a Beijing airport Monday, in this Oct. 10, 2005, file photo. The goods were intended for victims of a massive earthquake in Pakistan. AP Photo, Pool, File via Yahoo News.