FAO: Sugar induces decline in food price index

 NaijaAgroNet

 

 The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index has continued to decline in March by1.5 per cent from February and 18.7 percent (40 points) below its level a year earlier, NaijaAgroNet reports.

The FAO food price is a trade-weighted index that tracks prices of five major food commodity groups on international markets, namely cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar.

NaijaAgroNet also reports that a sharp fall in the price index for sugar which reached its lowest level since February 2009 together with dipping prices for vegetable oils, cereals and meat, more than offset a rise in dairy prices and contributed to the lower index, which in March averaged 173.8 points.

The index, NaijaAgroNet gathered has been on a downward path since April 2014.

The FAO noted that the Sugar Price Index averaged 187.9 points in March, down a sharp 9.2 percent from February. Stressing this was mainly due to improved crop prospects but also the continued weakening of the Brazilian currency against the US dollar, which is supportive to exports, NaijaAgroNet learnt.

The cereal output estimate for 2014, on other hand, rose to 2 544 million tonnes mainly due to a larger than anticipated maize harvest in the European Union, which confirmed that the global cereal output in 2014 would outstrip the 2013 record by 1 per cent.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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FAO food price index declines by 1% in February’15

NaijaAgroNet:

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) based in Rome has released the Food Price Index (FPI) with a show of decline to a 55-month low in February, thus dropping 1.0 per cent from January and 14 per cent below its level a year earlier, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Also, FPI showed lower prices for cereals, meat and especially sugar more than offset an increase in milk and palm oil prices. 

The FPI, NaijaAgroNet reports, averaged 179.4 points in February, down from 181.2 points in January and 208.6 points in February 2014. 

“Its ongoing decline - to its lowest level since July 2010 - reflects robust supply conditions as well as ongoing weakness in many currencies versus the U.S. dollar, which appear set to continue,” said Michael Griffin, FAO's dairy and livestock market expert.

 He noted that the first thing to flag is the favorable outlook for production of a number of crops in 2015, stressing "Stocks are also very strong" for most cereals, Griffin said.

FAO's Food Price Index, NaijaAgroNet is a trade-weighted index that tracks prices of five major food commodity groups on international markets. It aggregates price sub-indices of cereals, meat, dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar. 

 +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms)  +Naija AgroNet +Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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