Comparisons of trends in food production and consumption in 106 developing countries during 1967-80 showed that deterioration in food calorie balances because of shrinking calorie surplus or widening calorie gaps was more than twice as common as were incidences of expanding calorie surpluses or narrowing calorie gaps. Continued growth in net food exports to these countries is highly probable during the rest of the eighties. Fifty net calorie importers with widening calorie gaps comprise the core of the world's current and prospective problems in food security and human malnutrition. Causes of intercountry differences in food self-sufficiency are identified.