3-17 IAN Hi Food Prices
Food Prices Hit New Record High
Poor harvests, rising oil prices and increasing demand for basic foodstuffs pushed global food prices to a record high in February, according to the United Nations.
Prices rose above their last peak in 2008 for a second consecutive month and could surge further as unrest in Libya and other north African countries pushes up the price of oil, a key part of agricultural production.
UN spokesman David Hallam warned that further jumps in the oil price could have an impact on food markets, which have seen sustained price rises last year.
Hallam said: “Unexpected oil price spikes could further exacerbate an already precarious situation.”University of Idaho economist Dr. Paul Patterson says this is not the first time we’ve seen price increases: “ it was only about four years ago when grain prices peaked and we had the same sort of discussion when commodity prices and food prices made a run-up but after a few good harvests he saw grain prices move back down.”
Coffee has more than doubled over the last year from $1.30 a pound to more than $2.60. Milling wheat futures, which are a guide to bread prices, have jumped from around €120 a tonne to more than €250 a tonne. Cocoa has risen from $2,800 a tonne to more than $3,600 in the last two months alone.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) food price index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket composed of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 236 points in February, the record in real and nominal terms, up 2.2% from January’s record and rising for the eighth month in a row.
