In May, world food prices recorded the sharpest month-on-month rise in more than a decade. Their index rose for the twelfth month in a row and climbed to its highest level since September 2011. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a report today.
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The aggregate index, which monitors the prices of cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products, meat and sugar on international markets, rose by 4.8 percent month on month to 127.1 points. In year-on-year comparison, it even increased by 39.7 percent.
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The cereal price index rose by six percent month-on-month in May. However, the FAO predicts that global cereal production will increase by 1.9 percent this year to nearly 2.821 billion tons. That would set a record.
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The vegetable oil price index rose by 7.8 percent month on month, mainly due to higher prices of palm, soybean and rapeseed oils. The sugar price index rose by 6.8 percent, mainly due to harvest delays and fears of declining crop yields in Brazil, the world’s largest sugar exporter.
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The meat price index rose 2.2 percent in May, driven by the faster pace of imports to China and other East Asian countries. The price index for dairy products rose 1.8 percent, the FAO said.
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