
The FAO Food Price Index averaged nearly 162 points in October, up 3.9% from September, while still down 16% from a year earlier. FAO's latest Cereal supply and Demand Brief slightly trimmed its October 2015 forecast for global cereal production and now projects production at 2.53 billion tons, 1.1% below last year's record output

One of the driest places on Earth has blossomed after some unusual rain earlier this year. The Atacama Desert, primarily located in Chile along the Pacific Ocean, is flush with flowers after relatively heavy precipitation in March and August fell in the drought-stricken region.

A combination of weather, currency and political factors should result in another huge South American crop of corn and soybeans, further depressing grain and oilseed prices, says an analyst, according to a report from Canada's The Western Producer.

As neighbors Chile and Peru along the Pacific coast of South America, Colombia announced its electrical system is prepared for the El Niño weather phenomena, which may lead to drought and low reserves at hydro-electric facilities, mines and energy minister Tomas Gonzalez said on Wednesday.

A strong El Niño is likely to increase prices of staple foods such as rice, coffee, sugar and cocoa, say scientists. Forecasters agree that the El Niño effect, which can drive droughts and flooding, is under way in the tropical Pacific, but they say it is too early to say how severe it will be.

Last year was the hottest on Earth since record-keeping began in 1880, scientists reported on Friday, underscoring warnings about the risks of runaway greenhouse gas emissions and undermining claims by climate change contrarians that global warming had somehow stopped.

Out of a total of 12 Peruvian companies in the fishmeal and fish oil industry, only two recorded profits during 2013, while the other ten accumulated a loss equivalent to 87.4 million dollars, according to the country's National Society of Fisheries, SNP.

The year 2013 was among the top ten warmest years since modern records began in 1850, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It tied with 2007 as the sixth warmest year, with a global land and ocean surface temperature that was 0.50°C (0.90°F) above the 1961–1990 average and 0.03°C (0.05°F) higher than the most recent 2001–2010 decadal average.

Chilean experts and prosecutors are investigating the appearance of millions of dead prawns that washed up on a beach in southern Chile this week carpeting a three-kilometre strand in red.

Next season, 2012/13 Brazilian soybean growers could be in place to jump from the world's No. 2 producer and dispute the US first place. Brazil's 2012-13 soybean production is expected to rise 25% from this season’s drought-punished, to 83.1 million tons.