World food prices rose again last month

After two months of decline, world food prices rose again month on month last month, driven mainly by rapidly rising sugar and vegetable oil prices. However, cereal prices have also risen following recent estimates of weaker production in some key producers. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced this on Thursday. Year-on-year, world food prices have risen by a third. The FAO food price index, which monitors month-on-month changes in the prices of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, rose to 127.4 points in August from 123.5 points in July. The July value was revised upwards, when the food price index for July was originally set at 123 points. Compared to August last year, world food prices have already increased by 32.9%, Reuters reported. Compared to the previous month, sugar prices increased the most, by 9.6%. Concerns about the extent of the damage to the sugar cane crop in Brazil due to frosts have pushed them up. Brazil is the world's largest exporter of sugar. Even more significant increases in commodity prices have been prevented by optimistic yield estimates in India and the European Union. Vegetable oil prices also rose sharply. Growth reached 6.7%, which was mainly due to record palm oil prices. Prices of sunflower and rapeseed oil also increased. Cereal prices also went up, namely by 3.4%, which is a consequence of the expected lower yields in some key countries. World prices of barley increased by 9% and wheat by 8.8%. Conversely, corn and rice prices fell. The FAO most recently expects global cereal production to reach around 2.788 billion tonnes this year due to the drought in key producer countries. It originally expected production at 2.817 billion tons. Slight growth was also recorded in world meat prices, which was mainly due to high demand from China. He pushed up the prices of beef and lamb. Poultry meat prices have also risen, due to increased demand in East Asia and the Middle East. On the contrary, dairy prices fell in August compared to July.