Global food prices decline for fifth straight year: FAO

Prices of major food commodities fell for the fifth consecutive year in 2016, averaging 161.6 points for the year – 1.5 percent below the 2015 level and nearly 30 percent lower than the 229.9 points recorded in 2011, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said last week.

Cereal prices saw a steady decline last year, falling 9.6 percent from 2015 and down 39 percent from their 2011 peak, the FAO said in a statement.

Meanwhile, sugar and vegetable oil prices rose over the year by 34.2 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively.

“Economic uncertainties, including movements in exchange rates, are likely to influence food markets even more so this year," Abdolreza Abbassian, FAO senior economist, said in the statement.

The FAO Food Price Index is a trade-weighted index tracking international market prices for five key food commodity groups: major cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat and sugar.

The cereal price sub-index, which has been stable since September, increased 0.5 percent in the month of December as rice and maize quotations firmed up, the FAO said.

The vegetable oil price index rose 4.2 percent from November as palm oil and soy oil quotations rose, while the dairy price index climbed 3.3 percent. This was due primarily to higher prices for butter, cheese and whole milk powder and lower output in the European Union and Oceania.

On the other hand, the sugar price index declined 8.6 percent in the last month of 2016, while the meat price index dropped 1.1 percent from its revised November level, due mainly to falls in the international prices of bovine and poultry meats, the agency said.