Sapa-AFP Paris
BUMPER harvests and stockpiles of food were helping drive down world food prices to the lowest levels for about 15 years, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported yesterday.
Sugar and dairy produce showed the biggest price falls, followed by cereals and oil.
World food prices fell for the sixth consecutive month in September, marking “the longest period of continuous decline” since the late 1990s, the FAO said as it released its monthly food price index.
The price of meat had firmed but could be stabilising, it said.
“World wheat production in 2014 is forecast to reach a new record,” the organisation said.
Although the production of rice could fall slightly this year, stockpiles were “huge” and were enough to cover a third of expected consumption in 2015 and 2016.
But the Ebola virus outbreak in west Africa was a “hot spot” of concern, the FAO said in another quarterly report on crop prospects and the food situation. The epidemic was disrupting markets and farming, “affecting food security and large numbers of people”.
Also “irregular rains in several areas of the Sahelian belt will result in mixed production prospects”, it warned.
The food situation in east Africa was improving with the beginning of harvesting and although regional food prices were steady or falling, they were at record high levels in Somalia and Sudan.
The organisation also published its latest edition of a biannual Food Outlook report, saying “bumper harvests and abundant stockpiles are key factors helping drive down international cereal prices”.
It said: “Food markets are more stable and prices for most agricultural commodities are sharply lower than in recent years.”
World production of cereals was expected to total 2.5 billion tons this year, it said. This was an upward revision of 65 million tons from the initial FAO forecast in May.
And world inventories should rise to the highest level for 15 years by the end of the harvest season next year.
“Global output of oilseeds is also forecast to exceed last season’s record due to further expansion of soya bean production,” it said.
Production of cassava was set to reach a record high, boosted by output in Africa, and production of sugar would rise in the next two years.
“Meat production is set to grow moderately in 2014, but not enough to ease prices from current high levels, while milk production continues to grow steadily in many countries.”
The FAO said the global production of fish was rising, owing largely to fish farming.
Overall, the amount of money spent by all countries on importing food would exceed $1 trillion (R11 trillion) this year for the fifth year in a row.
A gauge of dairy prices fell 6.5 percent last month from August, with all products in the index falling, particularly skimmed milk power, it said.
“The continued decline in prices reflects abundant export availability, above all in Oceania.” In the EU, output of butter and skimmed milk powder rose as producers switched from production of cheese for Russia, the report noted.
The grain price index fell 2.5 percent to 177.9 points, with “good production” and large quantities available for export weighing on prices for wheat and maize.
An index of vegetable oil prices declined 2.8 percent to 162 points in September amid an outlook for ample palm-oil production in south-east Asia and better-than-expected soya bean yields in the US.
“The main driver behind the slide remains palm oil, whose prices dipped to five-year lows as abundant production coincided with weak import demand,” the organisation wrote.