Global food index falls in October despite higher cereal prices, says FAO

The global food price index calculated by the United Nations agency had a slight drop in October, setting the seventh consecutive monthly low and being 14.9% below the all-time high recorded in March.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Friday that its price index, which tracks the most traded food commodities globally, averaged 135.9 points last month, up from 136.0 (revised) in September. .

The September number had previously been calculated at 136.3.

The index fell from a record 159.7 reached in March, but remained 2.0% above the previous year.

While prices fell overall, the cereal index rose 3.0%, with wheat rising 3.2%, mainly reflecting uncertainties related to Ukraine’s exports and also a downward revision in US supply. International rice prices increased by 1.0%.

On the other hand, the FAO vegetable oil index fell by 1.6% in October and was down almost 20% from the previous year’s level. The increase in international sunflower seed oil prices was more than offset by lower world prices for palm, soy and rapeseed oils.

Dairy prices dropped 1.7%, meats dropped 1.4% and sugar dropped 0.6%.

In separate cereal supply and demand estimates, FAO lowered its forecast for global cereal production in 2022 to 2.764 billion tonnes from 2.768 billion tonnes previously.

The volume would be 1.8% below the estimated production for 2021.

“The month-on-month downward revision concerns almost entirely the US wheat crop, reflecting declines in yields and harvested area,” the FAO said.