The cereal and vegetable oil markets are particularly affected.
World food prices in March reached theirhighest levels ever recordedbecause of the war in Ukraine, whichcauses shocksin grain and vegetable oil markets, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced on Friday.
SEE ALSO – “In 30 years, there has never been a shortage of fish”: English fish & chips suffer from Russian sanctions and rising energy prices
Read alsoSkyrocketing grain prices jeopardize food security
The FAO food price index, which tracks the monthly change in the international prices of a basket of basic food products, had already broken its record in February since its creation in 1990, and recorded a further increase of 12.6 in March. %, the organization said in a statement. This increase is mainly attributable to the FAO cereal price index, whichregistered a 17.1% increase compared to February, driven by sharp increases in the prices of wheat and all coarse grains, mainly due to the war in Ukraine“.
Food prices are also driven up by vegetable oils, of which the FAO index “jumped 23.2%, driven by higher sunflower oil prices, the world’s largest exporter of which is Ukraine“. At the same time, the prices of palm, soybean and rapeseed oils are also rising sharply, “driven by higher global import demand due to sunflower oil supply disruptions“.
SEE ALSO – “We are entering an unprecedented food crisis“, warns Emmanuel Macron