MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FAO June food commodity prices remained unchanged: cereals down, offset by dearer oils, sugar and butter

The Cereal Price Index declined by 3% in June from May, with quotations for coarse grains, wheat and rice all down, driven in part by improved production

The benchmark for world food commodity prices was unchanged in June, as increases in international quotations for vegetable oils, sugar and dairy products offset a decrease in those for cereals, FAO reported this last week.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a set of globally-traded food commodities, averaged 120.6 points in June, the same as its revised figure for May. The index is now 2.1 percent lower than its year-earlier value and 24.8 percent below its March 2022 peak.

The FAO Cereal Price Index declined by 3.0 percent in June from May, with quotations for coarse grains, wheat and rice all down, driven in part by improved production prospects in major exporting countries.

The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index, by contrast, rose 3.1 percent from May, buoyed by reviving global import demand for palm oil and firm demand from the bio-fuel sector in the Americas for soy and sunflower oils.

The FAO Sugar Price Index increased by 1.9 percent from May after three consecutive monthly declines, due in large part to concerns over the likely impact of adverse weather and monsoons on production in Brazil and India.

The FAO Dairy Price Index rose by 1.2 percent, with international quotations for butter reaching a 24-month high on the back of increased global demand for near-term deliveries amidst strong retail sales, seasonally falling milk deliveries in Western Europe and low inventories in Oceania.

The FAO Meat Price Index was virtually unchanged in June, as slight increases in the world prices of ovine, pig and bovine meats nearly offset a supply-led decline in international poultry meat prices.