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Higher values for all food goods except sugar lifted prices on
international markets 10 percent above the same month last year,
the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
Rising shipping costs and larger import volumes are due to push
the cost of importing food globally to more than $1.3 trillion
in 2017, FAO said.
This would be a 10.6 percent rise over 2016's import bill,
despite broad stability in markets buoyed by ample supplies of
wheat and maize and higher production of oilseed products.
Poor countries that rely on imports to cover their food needs,
and part of sub-Saharan Africa are on course for an even faster
rise in their import costs as they buy in more meat, sugar,
dairy and oilseed products.
All food categories except fish are due to add to rising import
bills, as robust growth in aquaculture in many developing
countries increasingly manages to meet domestic demand.
FAO's food price index, which measures monthly changes for a
basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar,
averaged 172.6 points in May, up 2.2 percent from April.
FAO trimmed its forecast for global cereals output in the
2017-18 season to 2.594 billion tonnes, down 0.5 percent
year-on-year. Global wheat production is expected to decline 2.2
percent after a record harvest last year.
(Reporting by Isla Binnie, editing by Steve Scherer and Crispian
Balmer)
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