The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) world price index rose in April for the first time in a year.
The organization said that the index, which measures the prices of the most traded food commodities globally, averaged 127.2 points last month, compared to 126.5 in March. The March reading was initially at 126.9 points.
The agency added that the rise in April reflected an increase in the prices of sugar, meat and rice, which offset the impact of declines in the prices of cereals, milk and vegetable oils.
The sugar price index rose 17.6% compared to March, its highest level since October 2011. The organization said that this rise was linked to fears of shrinking supplies after downward revisions to production forecasts in India and China, as well as lower-than-expected production in Thailand and the European Union.
While the meat index rose 1.3% on a monthly basis, dairy prices decreased by 1.7%, vegetable oils by 1.3%, and cereals by 1.7%. The decline in world prices for all major grains outweighed the rise in rice prices.
In a separate report on cereal supply and demand, FAO expected global wheat production in 2023 to reach about 785 million tons, slightly below 2022 levels, yet it represents the second largest production ever.
The “FAO” also raised its estimates for global cereal production for the year 2022 to 2.785 billion tons, from a previous estimate of 2.777 billion, down 1% from the previous year. 2022.
Global cereal stocks are expected to decline by the end of the 2022-2023 season by 0.2% from their levels at the beginning, to 855 million tons.
This article was originally published by RT.