The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its latest Food Price Index, showing that global food prices have fallen in March 2023, for the 12th consecutive month.
The Index, which measures monthly changes in international prices of food commodities, averaged 126.9 points in March month, down 2.1% from the previous month.
The drop in March index pertains to cereals, vegetable oil and dairy price indices only, whereas sugar and meat prices increased.
The report revealed that the Oil Price Index averaged 131.8 points in March, down 4.1 points (3.0%) from February and standing as much as 47.7 % below its level a year ago.
The Dairy Price Index recorded 130.3 points in March, down 1.1 points (0.8%) from February and standing 15.6 points (10.7%) below its level in the corresponding month of 2022.
By contrast, the Meat Price Index rose 0.8% from February but was down 6.3 points (5.3 %) from one year ago. The Sugar Price Index averaged 127.0 points in March, up 1.8 points (1.5 %) from February.
The organization said that the contributing factors to this decline are the abundance of supplies, the decline in demand for imports and the extension of an agreement allowing the safe export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.
“While prices dropped at the global level, they are still very high and continue to increase in domestic markets, posing additional challenges to food security,” pointed out FAO’s chief economist Maximo Torero.