Global food prices unchanged in March

Shafaq News/ Global food commodity prices remained largely unchanged in March from its revised February value, as declines in world cereal and sugar quotations offset a notable increase in vegetable oil prices, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported on Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices of the most commonly traded food commodities, averaged 127.1 points in March, up from a revised 126.8 in February.

The index marked a 6.9% increase year-on-year, but remained 20.7% below its peak in March 2022, when prices surged following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Vegetable oil prices led the monthly rise, with the FAO sub-index climbing 3.7%, reflecting strong import demand for palm, soybean, rapeseed, and sunflower oils. On an annual basis, vegetable oil prices were up 23.9%.

In contrast, the FAO Cereal Price Index dropped 2.6% from February and was 1.1% lower than in March 2023. Wheat prices declined as concerns eased over crop conditions in key exporting countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Prices for maize and sorghum also fell.

The FAO Rice Price Index slipped 1.7% month-on-month, amid weak import demand and ample export supplies.

Sugar prices dropped 1.6%, driven by signs of softening global demand and improved rainfall in southern Brazil. However, the decline was limited by ongoing uncertainty around production outlooks in Brazil and India.

In a separate report, the FAO slightly raised its estimate for global cereal production in 2023 to 2.849 billion tonnes, up from a previous forecast of 2.842 billion tonnes.

The agency maintained its forecast for global wheat production in 2024 at 795 million tonnes, roughly unchanged from the previous year.