FAO: Food Prices Reach Record Highs in Seven Years

Global food commodity prices reached a near seven-year high in January 2021, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported, as quoted by TASS. The organization notes that the rise in the prices of food products in the world persists for the eighth consecutive month.

The FAO's food price index average, reflecting monthly changes in international prices for the main types of food products, reached 113.3 points in January, 4.3 percent above December level.

According to the report posted on the organization's website, this is the highest index since July 2014. The greatest price rise is of cereals, vegetable oils and sugar.

The one-month cereal price index rose 7.1 per cent, which the FAO explains with a sharp rise in maize (by 11.2 percent) up 42.3 percent from January 2020.

Wheat prices have risen by 6.8 per cent due to high global demand and an expected cuts in sales volumes by Russia, where wheat export duties have doubled since March 2021.

The vegetable oil price index rose 5.8 percent to the highest level since May 2012. The reason for this is the smaller-than-expected volume of palm oil production in Indonesia and Malaysia due to the down trend in labour migration, as well as strikes in Argentina, the FAO said.

The sugar price index was up 8.1 percent compared to December, dairy products by 1.6 percent and meat by                1 percent.

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