Push Admin

Article (news)

World food prices hit 10-year peak -FAO

Reuters

<p>PARIS - World food prices rose for a second consecutive month in September to reach a 10-year peak, driven by gains for cereals and vegetable oils, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.</p><p>The Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) also projected record global cereal production in 2021, but said this would be outpaced by forecast consumption.</p><p>FAO&#x27;s food price index, which tracks international prices of the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 130.0 points last month, the highest reading since September 2011, according to the agency&#x27;s data.</p><p>The figure compared with a revised 128.5 for August. The August figure was previously given as 127.4.</p><p>On a year-on-year basis, prices were up 32.8 percent in September.</p><p>Agricultural commodity prices have risen steeply in the past year, fuelled by harvest setbacks and Chinese demand.</p><p>The FAO&#x27;s cereal price <a href="http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en">index </a>rose by 2 percent in September from the previous month. That was led by a near 4 percent increase for wheat prices, with the UN agency citing tightening export availabilities amid strong demand.</p><p>&quot;Among major cereals, wheat will be the focus in the coming weeks as demand need to be tested against fast rising prices,” FAO Senior Economist Abdolreza Abbassian said in a statement.</p><p>World vegetable oil prices were up 1.7 percent on the month and showing a year-on-year rise of about 60 percent, as palm oil prices climbed on robust import demand and concerns over labour shortages in Malaysia, FAO said.</p><p>Palm oil futures have rallied further in early October to hit record highs as a surge in crude oil markets has lent further support to vegetable oils used in biodiesel.</p><p>Global sugar prices rose 0.5 percent in September with concern over adverse crop weather in top exporter Brazil partly offset by slowing import demand and a favourable production outlook in India and Thailand, according to FAO.</p><p>For cereal production, FAO projected a record world crop of 2.800 billion tonnes in 2021, up slightly from 2.788 billion estimated a month ago.</p><p>That would be below world cereal use of 2.811 billion tonnes, a forecast revised up by 2.7 million tonnes from a month earlier mainly to reflect increased wheat use in animal feed, FAO said in a cereal supply and demand <a href="http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/csdb/en.">note</a>.</p><p>Global cereal stocks were expected to ease in 2021/22 but would still be at a comfortable level, FAO added. </p><div><strong>(Reporting by Gus Trompiz Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Peter Graff)</strong></div><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/06/03/21/world-food-index-highest-level-may">World food price index surges in May to highest level since 2011: FAO</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/business/09/08/21/higher-food-prices-drive-inflation-to-over-2-year-high">Higher food prices drive PH inflation to over 2-year high</a></li></ul><div> </div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1614229" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

World food prices rose for a second consecutive month in September to reach a 10-year peak, driven by gains for cereals and vegetable oils, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.