FAO: world food prices fall 20.5% in March

The World food prices registered a decline of 20.5% in March of this yearaccording to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This represents 2.1% less than in February and 20.5% below the maximum level reached in the third month of 2022. However, these are still “high”.

“While prices have fallen globally, they remain very high and continue to rise in domestic markets, posing additional challenges for food security. This is particularly true in developing countries that are net food importers, whose situation is aggravated by the depreciation of their currencies against the US dollar or the euro and the growing debt burden,” said Máximo Torero, FAO chief economist. .

Thus, grains fell 5.6% compared to February and vegetable oils 3%. This helped offset the rise in sugar (+1.5%), which is at its highest rate since October 2016 -according to the FAO- due to fears linked to a drop in production projections in India, Thailand and China.

For his part, the cost of wheat decreased by 7%mainly due to the high production in Australia, the improvement of the crop situation in the European Union, the supply from Russia and the continuation of exports from Ukraine.

Likewise, world corn values ​​fell 4.6% thanks to expectations of a record crop in Brazil. In addition, rice prices fell 3.2% due to “harvests underway or imminent in major exporters such as India, Vietnam and Thailand.”

The FAO also estimates that world cereal utilization in 2022 and 2023 will now be 2,779 million tons, which means 0.7% less than in 2021 and 2022.

In this line, they foresee that the world trade in cereals this year will contract by 2.7% to 469 million tons, this in response to a reduction in the secondary trade of said foods. However, that of wheat is expected to rise.