The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) announced in its monthly report that global food prices in August rose to its highest level since November 2022, amid adverse weather conditions and geopolitical conflicts in the Black Sea.

Last month, the FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) for basic food items increased by 1.9 per cent and averaged 133.3 points, indicating a significant rise from its revised level in July of 130.8 points.

Prices rose by 2.5 per cent indicating an increase compared to last year’s figure in the same month due to extreme weather conditions in Europe, El Niño-related weather conditions and the active Russia-Ukraine war.

However, the figure was less than its highest record of 16.8 per cent in March 2022.

The FFPI measures the monthly global changes in prices among five commodity group price indices, which include cereals, vegetable oils, sugar, meat, and dairy, and tracks the causes of the increase across the five commodities, 

Cereal prices increased due to bad weather conditions that affected crop yields, export disruptions in the Black Sea, and strong demand for grains for the production of finished products.

Vegetable oils rose mainly due to high global demand for palm oil and soy oil and also due to the potential impact of weather conditions, which resulted in losses in production, while prices of meat and dairy products became more expensive due to low supplies due to the weather conditions in Europe.

Sugar prices had the highest increase among the five food products at 11.9 per cent due to the adverse weather conditions in Europe and parts of Asia and Brazil, including India’s decision to allow duty-free sugar imports.