According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the global price index of food rebounded in March after reaching a three-year low. This increase was primarily driven by higher prices for vegetable oils, meat, and dairy products.
FAO stated that its price index, which tracks the most commonly traded food commodities worldwide, averaged 118.3 points in March. This was an improvement from the revised 117.0 points recorded in the previous month.
Read more: IMF warns of food security threat from fragmented commodity markets
In February, the index had reached its lowest point since February 2021, marking a seventh consecutive monthly decline, as reported by Reuters.
International food prices have experienced a significant decline since their peak in March 2022, which coincided with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a major exporter of crops.
The FAO noted that its latest monthly reading was 7.7 percent lower than the level recorded in the same period the previous year.
Price index highlights
In March, the FAO’s vegetable oil price index experienced an 8 percent increase compared to the previous month. The dairy index continued its upward trend for the sixth consecutive month, rising by nearly 2.9 percent. Additionally, the meat index saw a 1.7 percent increase.
These gains further offset the declines observed in cereals, which decreased by 2.6 percent from February, and sugar, which fell by 5.4 percent.
FAO’s revised forecast for global cereal production
In a separate report on cereal supply and demand, the FAO slightly revised its forecast for global cereal production in the 2023/24 period. The new projection stands at 2.841 billion metric tons, a 1.1 percent increase from the previous season’s estimate of 2.840 billion metric tons.
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