Global food prices decline in March

NaijaAgroNet:

… Sugar, vegetable oils slide

The global food prices monitored by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) fell in March amid large available supplies and expectations of strong harvests, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The FAO Food Price Index, made available to NaijaAgroNet showed average at nearly 171 points in March, marking a 2.8 percent drop from the previous month while remaining 13.4 percent above its level a year earlier. 

FAO's Food Price Index is a trade-weighted index tracking international market prices of five major food commodity groups.

FAO also released its first world cereal supply and demand outlook for the year ahead, expecting it to be "another season of relative market tranquillity" with grain inventories remaining at near-record levels.

Meanwhile, NaijaAgroNet gathered that meat prices are exception in general downward trend, according to the FAO Cereal Price Index declined 1.8 percent from February, led down by wheat and maize. It is now roughly par with its March 2016 level.

The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index was 6.2 percent lower on the month. Palm oil and soy oil quotations both fell in March on the back of improving production forecasts, while those of rape and sunflower seed oils also declined due to higher-than-expected availabilities.

The FAO Sugar Price Index declined by 10.9 percent to its lowest level since May 2016 amid weak import demand and expectations of robust Brazilian supplies entering world markets as a result of strong harvests and slower domestic uptake for bio-ethanol production.

Buoyant milk supplies led to a 2.3 percent monthly decline in the FAO Dairy Price Index, which, however, remained well above its year-ago level.

The FAO Meat Price Index rose 0.7 per cent, led upward by firm import demand from Asia for bovine meat and pigmeat.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE

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