Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS,15th April: UN Food and Agriculture Organization has reported that the global food prices have reached “a new all-time high,” the head of the agency FAO said on Friday, “hitting the poorest the hardest.”
FAO chief QU Dongyu said “It is now more than two years that the COVID-19 pandemic continues to negatively impact our lives, our health and our economie .
He explained that the neediest “face greater exposure to the pandemic and are the most affected by rising food and fuel prices,”
Mr. Dongyu pointed out that prices for staple foodstuffs such as wheat and vegetable oils have soared, “imposing extraordinary costs on global consumers, particularly the poorest”.
The agency said that conflict has driven up international prices for wheat, maize and vegetable oils, as war in the Black Sea region spread shocks through the markets trading in these staples.
FAO Food Price Index averaged 159.3 points in March, up 12.6 per cent from February when it had already reached its highest level since its inception in 1990.
The Index tracks monthly changes in the prices of a basket of commonly traded food commodities. Last month’s prices were 33.6 per cent higher overall, than March last year.
FAO Cereal Price Index was 17.1 per cent higher in March than it was just a month earlier,is driven by soaring wheat and coarse grain prices due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine combined, accounted for 30 per cent and 20 per cent of global wheat and maize exports, respectively in past 3 years, FAO stated.
FAO’s newly released Cereal Supply and Demand Brief estimated that 20 per cent of Ukraine’s winter crops that were planted, may not be harvested.
It pointed to a worldwide cereal production of 2,799 million tonnes, up slightly from 2020, with rice production reaching an all-time high of 520.3 million tonnes.
The global cereal use in 2021-22 is projected to reach 2,789 million tonnes, including a record level for rice, with increases also expected for maize and wheat.
Global cereal stocks are forecast to rise by 2.4 per cent by the end of this year, from their opening levels, largely due to higher wheat and maize stocks in Russia and Ukraine, on account of lower expected exports.
FAO lowered its forecast for world trade in cereals in the current marketing year to 469 million tonnes, marking a contraction from the 2020-21 level, largely due to the war in Ukraine and based on currently available information, the agency noted
European Union and India increasing wheat exports, while Argentina, India and the United States ship are likely to ship more maize partially compensating for the loss of exports from the Black Sea region, FAO said.
The agency’s Vegetable Oil Price Index rose 23.2 per cent, driven by higher quotations for sunflower seed oil, of which Ukraine is the world’s leading exporter.
FAO reiterated that palm, soy and rapeseed oil prices also rose markedly as a result of the higher sunflower seed oil prices and the rising crude oil prices with soy oil prices further underpinned by concerns over reduced South American exports.
FAO’s Sugar Price Index rose 6.7 per cent from February, reversing recent declines to reach a level more than 20 per cent higher than in March 2021.
It stressed that higher crude oil prices were a driving factor, along with currency appreciation of the Brazilian Real, while favorable production prospects in India prevented larger monthly price increases.
The surging pig meat prices related to a shortfall in animals for slaughter in Western Europe, drove the FAO Meat Price Index up by 4.8 per cent in March to reach an all-time high, FAO said.
The agency estimated that international poultry prices firmed in step with reduced supplies from leading exporting countries following avian flu outbreaks.
According to FAO, a surge in import demand for near and long-term deliveries, from Asian markets, quotations for butter and milk powders rose steeply, driving the FAO Dairy Price Index up 2.6 per cent, making it 23.6 per cent higher than in March 2021, it added.
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