August Food Price Index falls on lower vegoil and cereals prices: FAO

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) World Food Price Index fell by 2.6 points in August on the back of downward movement for cereals, vegoils, and dairy products sub-indices, the FAO said Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 121.4 points in August, or 2.1% down compared with July and 11% lower year-on-year.

The Cereal Price Index declined marginally by 0.7% in August versus July and by 14.1% year-on-year.

"International wheat prices fell by 3.8 percent, mostly reflecting higher seasonal availability from ongoing harvests in several leading exporters in the northern hemisphere," the FAO said.

"Maize prices fell for the seventh consecutive month, hitting their lowest value since September 2020, underpinned by ample global supplies from a record harvest in Brazil and the start of the harvest in the United States of America," the FAO added.

The world Vegetable Oil Price Index amounted to 125.8 points in August, showing a 3.1% decrease compared with July.

"The decline reflected lower world prices across palm, sunflower, soy, and rapeseed oils," the FAO said.

The global sunflower oil prices continued to fall amid "weakening import demand that coincided with abundant offers from major exporters," the FAO said.

Meanwhile, international soyoil prices dropped, mainly reflecting prospects for improving crop conditions in the US.

Overall, the FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index declined by 22.9% year-on-year.