World food prices continued to fall in September for the sixth consecutive month, driven by a sharp decline in vegetable oils which offset a slight upturn in cereals, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday. agriculture (FAO).
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The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks international prices of a basket of commodities, has fallen again since hitting a record high in March after Russia invaded Ukraine. It fell moderately in September, by 1.1% compared to August.
It stands at 136.3 points, and therefore remains at a high level, “5.5% higher than its value a year ago”, indicates the organization.
The FAO vegetable oil price index fell 6.6% over one month, “to reach its lowest level since February 2021”. “International prices for palm, soybean, sunflower and rapeseed oils have all fallen,” the organization said, thanks to the existence of abundant stocks of palm oil and a seasonal increase in production in Asia. from the South East.
The FAO cereal price index, meanwhile, rose slightly by 1.5% compared to August. International wheat prices rebounded 2.2%, on drought concerns in the United States and Argentina, and uncertainty over the extension of the shipping corridor to get grain out of Ukraine in beyond the month of November.
The organization has once again revised down its outlook for global cereal production in 2022. It is expected to fall by 1.7% compared to 2021 due to unfavorable weather conditions, particularly in the United States.
“45 countries, including 33 in Africa, nine in Asia, two in Latin America and the Caribbean and one in Europe need external food aid,” the FAO also warned on Friday.
Nearly a million people around the world are threatened by a “catastrophic famine” and risk death in the coming months in the absence of humanitarian aid, the UN warned in a report published in September, a figure record due in particular to the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa.
The FAO also forecasts a slowdown in world cereal trade, down 2.4% for the 2022/2023 campaign compared to the previous one, as a result in particular of the war in Ukraine.