Food prices slide higher thanks to oils, dairy products

PARIS-Agence France-Presse

Food prices rose further in September due to higher costs of oils and dairy products, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said on Oct. 5, with the increases outpacing inflation in many countries.

The FAO said its Food Price Index came in at 178.4 points in September, a gain 1.4 points or 0.8 percent from August and 7.4 points or 4.3 percent above September 2016.

“Firmer prices in the vegetable oil and dairy sectors were behind the small month-on-month rise in the value” of the overall index, the FAO said in a statement.

The cereals index fell thanks to good harvests for maize in North American and wheat in Russia, but it was still 8 percent above the level of September 2016.

“World cereal stocks by the close of seasons in 2018 are now forecast at a new all-time high of 720.5 million tons,” said the FAO.

Consumer price inflation is expected to come in at 2.3 percent this year in industrialized nations, according to the OECD.

The FAO calculates its Food Price Index monthly to measure changes in international prices of a basket of food commodities.