The Food And Agriculture Organization (FAO) food price index reached an average of 159.3 points in March, 12.6% more than in February, a new record since the index was created in the 1990s.   It is "a giant leap," fao said in its statement on Thursday, which also says that "the new highs ever for vegetable oils, cereals and meat sub-indices, while sugar and dairy products also have increased significantly," according to public, from Portugal.

This index is made with the average price of five food price indices, which are meat, dairy products, cereals, vegetable oils and sugar, weighted by the average world export quotas of each group in the period 2014-2016. "The last level of the index," the FAO contextualizes, "was already 33.6% higher than in March 2021."

"World food commodity prices made "a significant jump in March to their highest levels ever", with the "war in the Black Sea region" having a "shock effect through the markets for basic grains [grain cereals used in feed and animal feed] and vegetable oils," fao explains.

The cereal index had a growth of 17.1% (to 170.1 points) and the index of vegetable oils shot up 23.2% (to 46.9 points) in just one month. Although predictable after the war began, the "loss of exports from the Black Sea region exacerbated the already short global availability of wheat," fao said.

Source: Agrolink