According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), world food prices rose for a second consecutive month in September to reach a 10-year peak, driven by gains for cereals and vegetable oils.
Indeed FAO’s food price index, which tracks international prices of the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 130.0 points last month, the highest reading since September 2011, compared to 128.5 for August.
FAO had projected a record global cereal production in 2021, but it will be outpaced by forecast consumption.
In fact, for cereal production, FAO had projected a record world crop of 2.800 billion tonnes in 2021, up slightly from 2.788 billion estimated a month ago.
However, it would be below world cereal use of 2.811 billion tonnes, a forecast revised up by 2.7 million tonnes from a month earlier.
Consequentially, global cereal stocks are expected to ease in 2021/22 even if would still be at a comfortable level.
In this context, agricultural commodity prices have risen steeply in the past year, with on a year-on-year basis prices up 32.8% in September.
Particularly, the FAO’s cereal price index rose by 2.0% in September from the previous month.
That was led by a near 4% increase for wheat prices.
World vegetable oil prices were up 1.7% on the month and showing a year-on-year rise of about 60%.
Global sugar prices rose 0.5% in September.
