Symbolic imageUN index puts global food prices at a three-year high
The UN food price index rose in July to 131.1 points, its highest reading in more than three years, the FAO said on Friday. Heatwaves, the war in Ukraine and escalation in the Gulf lifted cereal, sugar and vegetable oil costs.
What happened
- Cereal prices rose 3.4% month on month, with wheat up 5.8% and maize up 3.6%.
- Sugar climbed 5.6%, vegetable oils 2%, the latter the highest since June 2022.
- Meat fell 2.8% from June's record level, dairy 0.7%; sheep meat hit a record.
- FAO cites Black Sea export disruption and damaged export infrastructure after intensified Russian and Ukrainian attacks.
- June's European heatwave forced grain farmers to destroy an estimated 9m tonnes of crops, the Guardian reports.
The view from outside
Daily Sabah, publishing Reuters copy, frames the record more narrowly: July stood only slightly above a previous three-year high in April, and the index remains 18.2% below its March 2022 peak after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
What could happen next
- Commodity costs usually reach shop shelves months later, as suppliers pass them on to consumers.
- The WFP warns El Niño may push 50 million people into acute hunger by the end of 2027.
- It names Central and South America, the Caribbean and southern Africa as the worst affected regions.
- Fertiliser supply stays exposed: about a third of production ships through the strait of Hormuz.