North Korea’s food shortage is estimated to reach about 700-thousand tons in the 2016 fiscal year.

Citing data from the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO) and the World Food Program(WFP), the Unification Ministry said on Tuesday that North Korea needs about five-point-five million tons of food in the 2016 fiscal year, but its food production reached four-point-eight million tons.

The 2016 fiscal year used by FAO and WFP is the period from November last year to October this year.

The North’s food shortages are sharply increasing from 340-thousand tons in 2014, 407-thousand tons in 2015 and 694-thousand tons this year.

The surge is attributed to lower food production as a result of droughts and fertilizer and fuel shortages.