World meals costs fell in January for a tenth consecutive month, and are actually down some 18% from a document excessive hit final March following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations meals company mentioned on Friday.
The Meals and Agriculture Group’s (FAO) worth index, which tracks essentially the most globally traded meals commodities, averaged 131.2 factors final month in opposition to 132.2 for December. It was the bottom studying since September 2021.
The December determine was revised down from an unique estimate of 132.4.
Falls within the costs of vegetable oils, dairy and sugar helped pull down the index, whereas cereals and meat remained largely secure, the FAO mentioned.
In separate cereal provide and demand estimates on Friday, the FAO raised its forecast for world cereal manufacturing in 2022 to 2.765 billion tonnes from a earlier estimate of two.756 billion tonnes.
The FAO cereal worth index rose simply 0.1% month-on-month in January to offer a 4.8% improve on the yr. Worldwide wheat costs declined 2.5% as manufacturing in Australia and Russia outpaced expectations. Rice, in contrast, jumped 6.2%, pushed partly by robust native demand in some Asian exporting international locations.
Vegetable oil costs fell 2.9% in January, the dairy index dipped 1.4% and sugar declined 1.1%. Meat slipped a mere 0.1%.
provide and demand for cereals, FAO mentioned it anticipated a document world output of wheat in 2022 because of revised crop forecasts from Australia and Russia.
The forecast for world rice manufacturing was revised down on the again of lower-than-expected output in China, and is now predicted to say no 2.6% from its all-time excessive in 2021.
Waiting for 2023, FAO mentioned early indications pointed to a probable growth of winter wheat cropping within the northern hemisphere. Nevertheless, it warned that top fertilizer prices might impression yields.
World cereal utilisation in 2022/23 was forecast to dip 0.7% from the earlier yr to 2.779 billion tonnes. The estimate for world cereal shares was pegged at 844 million tonnes, pushing down the world stock-to-use ratio for 2022/23 to 29.5% from 30.8% in 2021/22.