The FAO Food Price Index rose 1% or 2.4 points from January to February. The Index climbed nearly 2% in January – its first increase in six months. The February increase was mostly driven by higher prices of sugar, oils and cereals while dairy prices fell slightly after a marked rise in January.
FAO forecasts that 2012 world wheat production will be the second highest on record at 690 million tonnes. According to FAO quarterly Crop prospects and food situation report forecast a 2012 wheat crop 10 million tons or 1.4% down from the record 2011 harvest but still well above the average of the past five years.
The FAO Food Price Index rose by nearly two percent or four points from December to January, its first increase since July 2011. According to FAO prices of all the commodity groups in the index registered gains last month with oils increasing the most followed closely by cereals, sugar, dairy products and meat.
Agriculture is part of the solution to the world's environmental challenge and must play a key role at next June's Rio summit on sustainable development, the Brazilian head of the UN food agency said this week.
Food prices fell in December 2011 with the FAO Food Price Index dropping 2.4%, or five points from November, FAO said on Thursday. At its new level of 211 points, the Index was 11.3% (27 points) below its peak in February 2011.
Food prices may ease in 2012 due to a slowing global economy, though no drastic drop from high levels is expected, the new director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Tuesday.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, and Transparency International have detected serious corruption problems in the access to land in at least 61 countries, among which some in Latinamerica.
Aquaculture is the world's fastest-growing source of animal protein and currently provides nearly half of all fish consumed globally, according to a report published here by FAO.
The FAO Food price index dropped to an 11-month low in October, declining 4%, or nine points, to 216 points from September. Nonetheless prices still remain generally higher than last year and very volatile, FAO said.
With nearly one billion people still suffering from food shortages around the globe, the world must take a united stand against hunger, the United Nations said on Sunday 16 October, marking World Food Day.