São Paulo – Food prices tracked monthly by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) climbed for the third straight month in April. This Thursday (5th) in Rome, the FAO reported that food prices reached 151.8 points, up 0.7% from March. Still, the score was 10% lower than in April 2015.
The FAO Food Price Index monitors the prices of over 40 different products, divided into five commodity groups: vegetable oils, cereals, meats, sugar and dairy. Scores are given to each group individually and then a final overall score is computed. The higher the prices, the higher the score. The cheaper the prices, the lower the score. Before they started going up last January, prices had been on a downward curve for four years.
According to FAO, the price hike seen in April was primarily a consequence of higher palm oil prices, which hit a 17-month peak on the back of expectations of a weak output and strong demand. That influenced the score for vegetable oils, which was up 4.1% to 166.4 points;
Another group whose price increased was cereals, up 1.5% to 150 points, mostly due to higher maize prices. Meats were up 1.2% to 146.6 points, driven by lamb and mutton meat and beef.
Sugar prices dropped 1.7%, partly because Brazil could see one of its biggest crops in years, while demand for ethanol made from sugarcane is slow. Dairy prices went down in April from March as well, by 2.2% to 127.4 points. “Quotations for dairy products continued to be affected by ample world supplies and limited buying interest by traditional importers,” FAO said in a press release.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
