World food prices reach 18-month high in October, UN says

World food prices rose in October to an 18-month high as vegetable oils led increases in most food staples, UN data showed on Friday.

A price index compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to track the most globally traded food commodities increased to 127.4 points last month, up 2% from a revised 124.9 points in September.

That put the index up 5.5% from a year ago and marked its highest since April 2023, though it was 20.5% below a record from March 2022 reached after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the data showed.

Prices of all categories rose, apart from meat, with vegetable oils jumping more than 7% from the previous month, supported by concerns about palm oil production, the FAO said.

The overall index extended gains from September when it reached its highest since July 2023 on the back of surging sugar prices.

Persisting concerns about the 2024/2025 production outlook in Brazil supported a more moderate increase for sugar prices in October when they advanced 2.6%, the FAO said.

Cereal prices edged up 0.8% from September.

Wheat rose amid concerns about northern hemisphere planting conditions and after the introduction of an unofficial Russian export price floor, while maize was also higher, the FAO said.

Dairy prices rose nearly 2%, supported by cheese and butter, which faced strong demand and limited available supply, the agency said.

Overall meat prices edged down 0.3%. Pork saw the sharpest decline while poultry ticked lower, in contrast to beef that rose on the back of increased international demand.

In a separate cereal report, the FAO trimmed its forecast for global cereal production in 2024 to 2.848-billion metric tonnes from 2.853-billion projected a month ago.

The revision left expected output down 0.4% from the previous year but it remained the second-largest level on record.

Reuters