The World Development Movement (WDM) have estimated that Barclays bank will make up to £529million in 2010 and 2011 from speculating in food markets while millions of people around the world face starvation and crippling food prices. Figures released by the WDM this week show that world food prices jumped 10 per cent in July, with maize prices hitting a record level after rising 25 per cent in the month. The price of maize in Mozambique, where people spend over half of their income on food, more than doubled between April and July while South Africans faced a 27 per cent hike in wheat prices during those three months. These figures follow a damning WDM report released earlier this year that claimed 'Massive influxes of speculative money in food markets have been driving sharp price spikes, sending the cost of food soaring beyond the reach of the world’s poorest people,' WMD policy and campaigns officer Christine Haigh said: '(Barclays) behavior risks fueling a speculative bubble and contributing to hunger and poverty for millions of the world's poorest people'. Barclays' dominance in the commodities market is widely recognised within the financial industry, winning the Risk Magazine Award for Commodity and Energy Derivatives House of the Year for 2008, 2009 and 2011. The WDM have demanded tough new rules to prevent more food crisis, 'clear, hard rules are required to control financial speculation and to help prevent another global food crisis.'