The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has released a statement highlighting that world food prices have jumped to their highest levels since May 2013.
The FAO Food Price Index rose 4.8 points or 2.3 percent in the month of March with influences such as unfavourable weather conditions in the US and Brazil, and geopolitical tension in the Black Sea region playing a major role in the increases.
"The Food Price Index looks at March trends. Since then, the initial fear over disruptions in grain shipments from Ukraine has subsided. Also, markets have started to discard any negative impacts that the current difficult domestic economic conditions may bear on plantings or harvests in 2014," FAO senior economist, Abdolreza Abbassian said.
The Index, which is based on prices of various internationally traded food commodities, saw prices rise in all groups with the exception of dairy which fell from the first time in four months by 2.5 percent.
The highest price increase was in sugar which averaged 253.9 points in March, representing an 18.5 point increase. According to the FAO, the price hike was due to declining availability in key growing areas such as Brazil and Thailand.
The price increases listed in the report include:
- Cereal Price Index: Averaged 205.8 points in March – ten points up from February.
- Vegetable Oil Price Index: Averages 204.8 points in March – seven points higher than February representing the highest level in 18 months
- Meat Price Index: averaged 185 points in March – Up 2.7 points due to dry weather conditions in Australia and the US