Food price index hits record high

ROME – Global food prices rose in December, with the FAO Food Price Index at a record high, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation said yesterday, past 2008 highs when rising food prices sparked riots in a number of countries.

Up for the sixth month in a row and fuelled by surging sugar prices and rises in cereals and oils, the index was the highest since records began in 1990, in nominal terms, and topped the high of 213,5 in June 2008, during the food crisis of 2007-08.The index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket composed of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 214,7 points last month, up from 206,0 points in November.The FAO’s Sugar Price Index soared to a record high of 398,4 points from 373,4 points in November.The Oils Price Index also jumped to 263,0 points in December from 243,3 points in November. Its Cereals Price Index, which includes prices of main food staples such as wheat, rice and maize, rose to an average of 237,6 points in December, the highest level since August 2008 and up from 223,3 points in November.Prices of maize, wheat and other grains can go much higher and current weather patterns are of concern, the FAO’s economist, Abdolreza Abbassian, said yesterday.’We are concerned, the real reason for concern is the unpredictability,’ Abbassian said.’There is still room for prices to go up much higher, if for example the dry conditions in Argentina tend to become a drought, and if we start having problems with winterkill in the northern hemisphere for the wheat crops,’ he said.Winterkill occurs when cold attacks plants seeded, generally in the autumn, for harvesting the following year. – Nampa-Reuters