FAO’s Food Price Index drops for the 11th consecutive month

Fao’s food price index has been published for the month of February, and it continues to show a somewhat worrying trend!

On a monthly basis, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) publishes its Food Price Index, an indicator of the monthly variation of a number of food products.

The index is drafted based on the price behavior of 5 food groups: cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products, meats and sugars.

The agency, which depends on the UN, published the figure for the month of February: 129.8 during the first days of March. This value is slightly below the previous month, which was at 129.6.

This decline may seem insignificant, but it should be noted that this trend has been the same for the past 11 months.

“The index has decreased 29.9 points (18.7%) from the peak reached in March 2022. The slight decline in the FAO Food Price Index in February reflected significant declines in vegetable oil and dairy price indices, together with slightly lower cereal and meat price indices, which offset the sharp increase seen in the sugar price index.

Cereal index: Unchanged from January.

Vegetable oil index: Recorded the largest decline, 3.2%.

Dairy Index: Marked drop of 2.7% from the previous month.

Meat index: No significant changes.

Sugar index: It is the only food group that registered a positive variation, increasing 6.9% compared to January.

Comparative chart of the FAO index between 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Source: fao.org

The publication dates for the FAO Food Price Index 2023 are:

6 January
3 February
3 March
7 April,
5 May
2 June
7 July
4 August
8 September
6 October
3 November
8 December

Unlike for other commodity groups, most prices utilized in the calculation of the FAO Meat Price Index are not available when the FAO Food Price Index is computed and published; therefore, the value of the Meat Price Index for the most recent months is derived from a mixture of projected and observed prices. This can, at times, require significant revisions in the final value of the FAO Meat Price Index which could in turn influence the value of the FAO Food Price Index.

Source: “FAO Food Price Index”

You may also like: “WE ARE READY FOR VIV ASIA 2023!”