World food prices edge up in
October: FAO
Send a link to a friend
[November 10, 2016]
By Isla Binnie
ROME
(Reuters) - World food prices edged up in October to continue an upward
trend since January, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday,
adding that prospects for global cereal output had improved.
Barring a slight dip in July, the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO)
food price index has steadily increased from a seven-year low hit in the
first month of this year.
The index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals,
oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 172.6 points in
October, 0.7 percent above the month before and 9.1 percent above
October last year.
Sustained demand for cheese and butter in the European Union pushed up
dairy prices 3.9 percent on the month, while sugar rose on reports of
production shortfalls in Brazil and India.
Conversely, sluggish import demand globally for palm oil pushed oil and
fats prices down, and weaker appetite for European pigmeat from
importers in China weighed on meat prices.
FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian said high production prospects
for basic foods such as cereals meant any future price rises would
probably be muted.
But he added that currency volatility and uncertainty unleashed by the
U.S. presidential election this week hampered predictions about changes
in dollar terms.
"It's not an election in just any country, it's the very country whose
currency is the common denominator for all international trade,"
Abbassian said.
[to top of second column] |
An employee collects wheat from a sack inside a grocery store at a
residential area in Mumbai, India, March 14, 2016. REUTERS/Shailesh
Andrade
"This is an additional uncertainty, but ... if you had assumed that
business as usual were to continue I would have argued that, given the
good prospects at hand, the potential for further price increases was
probably limited."
Cereal prices rose 1.0 percent month-on-month in October as high-quality
wheat supplies tightened, but the FAO forecast global wheat output this
year would be 1.5 percent higher than in 2015.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie; Editing by Dale Hudson)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|