© Reuters. UN Food and Agriculture Organization: Global food prices fall slightly, food security still a concern
Financial Associated Press, May 6 (Editor Xia Junxiong) On Friday (May 6) local time, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said that after hitting a record high in March, global food prices fell slightly in April, but due to the market The situation is difficult, and global food security remains a concern.
The FAO’s food price index was 158.5 points in April and was revised up to 159.7 in March. The index tracks the world‘s most traded food commodities, including meat, dairy, grains, vegetable oils and sugar, among others.
“The small drop in the food price index is reassuring, especially for low-income food-deficit countries, but food prices remain near recent highs, reflecting continued market tensions and a global Food security for the most vulnerable groups poses a challenge.”
Although the April food price index fell 0.7% month-on-month, it was still 29.8% higher than a year earlier, partly due to the ongoing impact of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
Both Russia and Ukraine are important grain exporters, of which Ukraine produces 49.6% of the world‘s sunflower oil, 10% of wheat, 12.6% of barley and 15.3% of corn. Since the outbreak of the conflict, food exports from the Black Sea region have been disrupted and supply uncertainty has grown.
In another cereal supply and demand forecast released on Friday, the FAO trimmed its forecast for global wheat production in 2022 to 782 million tonnes from 784 million tonnes in the previous month. The forecast takes into account an expected 20 percent reduction in harvested area in Ukraine, as well as lower production due to drought in the North African country Morocco.
With almost all crops already harvested, FAO’s forecast for world cereal production in 2021 remains unchanged at 2.799 billion tonnes, up 0.8 percent from 2022.
FAO slightly raised its forecast for global cereal trade in the 2021/22 marketing year to 473 million tonnes, up 3.7 million tonnes from last month’s forecast but 1.2 percent below the record level in 2020/21.
The agency said the upward revision was based on strong Russian exports in April, mainly due to continued shipments to Egypt, Iran and Turkey.
Food and feed prices could rise by 20 percent due to the Ukraine crisis, raising the risk of a food crisis, the FAO warned in March.