The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) world price index fell in January to its lowest level in nearly three years.
The United Nations’ food agency said the drop was driven by declines in cereals and meat.
The FAO price index tracks the most globally traded food commodities. The index averaged 118.0 points in January, down from 119.1 the previous month, the agency said on Friday.
January’s reading marked the lowest since February 2021.
The report comes after a number of surveys indicated Eurozone inflation could fall faster than expected in 2024.
‘Strong Competition’
In the monthly update, the FAO said, “Global wheat export prices declined in January driven by strong competition among exporters and the arrival of recently harvested supplies in the southern hemisphere countries.”
The FAO also said maize prices fell sharply. This reflected improved crop conditions and the start of the harvest in Argentina, as well as larger supplies in the United States.
The meat price index declined for the seventh consecutive month. According to the FAO, abundant supplies from leading exporters drove down international prices of poultry, bovine and pig meats.
Cereal And Grain
In a separate report, the FAO said that world cereal production in 2023 was on track to hit an all-time record high of 2.836 billion metric tonnes – up 1.2% from 2022.
Global coarse grain output was at an all-time high of 1.523 billion tonnes, following a 12 million ton upward adjustment this month.
"The bulk of the revision reflects new official data from Canada, China (mainland), Turkey and the US, where a combination of higher yields and larger harvested areas than previously expected has led to higher maize (corn) production estimates," the FAO said.
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