Global Food Prices Decline For 10th Month in January: FAO

Global food prices dropped in January for a 10th consecutive month, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced on Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly-traded food commodities, averaged 131.2 points last month, 0.8 percent lower than the previous month and 17.9 percent below its peak reached in March 2022.

Falls in the prices of vegetable oils, dairy and sugar helped pull down the overall index, while cereals and meat remained largely stable, according to the FAO.

Vegetable oil prices fell 2.9 percent in January, the dairy index dipped 1.4 percent and sugar declined 1.1 percent. Meat slipped a mere 0.1 percent. The FAO cereal price index rose just 0.1 percent month-on-month in January. International wheat prices declined 2.5 percent as production in Australia and Russia outpaced expectations. Rice prices, by contrast, jumped 6.2 percent, driven in part by strong demand in some Asian rice exporting countries.

In separate cereal supply and demand estimates, the FAO forecasts global cereal supplies to tighten in 2022/23 season.