LIVE UPDATES
The Food and Agriculture Organisation reported on Friday that global food prices saw a small decrease in August.
It said the decline was mainly due to lower prices for sugar, meat, and cereals, which offset increases in vegetable oils and dairy products.
The FAO Food Price Index, which monitors monthly changes in international prices of a basket of globally-traded food commodities, averaged 120.7 points in August, a slight drop from the revised July figure and 1.1% below the corresponding value in August 2023.
According to the information from the website, the FAO Cereal Price Index decreased by 0.5% from July, driven by lower global wheat export prices due to competitively priced supplies from the Black Sea region and higher-than-expected production in Argentina and the United States.
Meanwhile, world maize prices increased slightly, reflecting the impact of heatwaves on yields in parts of Europe and North America, while the FAO All-Rice Price Index rose by 0.6%, as quotations for non-Indica varieties increased due to seasonal tightness and currency appreciations of some exporting countries against the US dollar.
The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index increased by 0.8% from July, reaching a 20-month high, as increases in international palm oil prices more than offset declining quotations for soy, sunflower and rapeseed oils.
