São Paulo – The prices of food commodities measured by the Food and Agriculture of Organization of the United Nations (FAO) dropped 19.1% in 2015 in comparison to the previous year. According to FAO’s Price Index published by the agency this Thursday (7th) in Rome, prices registered, on average, 164.1 points last year. In 2014, they registered 201.4 points.
FAO measures the prices of five groups of commodities: meat, dairies, sugars, vegetal oils and cereals and, based on them, calculates the FAO Food Price Index, set in a scale of points. Besides the drop in comparison to 2014, the FAO Food Price Index registered last year the fourth consecutive yearly decline.
A weak world economy and the excess of supply are the reasons for the decline in prices in the assessment of FAO’s senior economist, Abdolreza Abbasian.
“Abundant supplies in the face of a timid world demand and an appreciating dollar are the main reason for the general weakness that dominated food prices in 2015”, said the economist in a statement released by the agency. All of the food groups became cheaper in 2015 in comparison to 2014.
In December, says FAO, food prices reached 154.1 points, or 1% less than November of last year. The prices of cereal dropped 1.3% in comparison to November, while vegetal oils’ declined 2.1%, meats’ were 2.2% cheaper and dairies’ slid down 1%.
Also in the December and November 2015 comparison, only the prices of sugar went up, with an increase of 0.6%. The reasons for the price hike in this group of commodities were the excess of rain in Brazil, the world’s largest producers, and expectations for weaker crops in India, Thailand and South Africa.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani