World food prices hit 10-year highs in May

June 4, Minsk. The increase in world food prices in May 2021 was a record for the last 10 years. Such data are provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), according to the website of the UN News Center.

The average FAO Food Price Index for May is 4.8% higher than April and 39.7% higher than May 2020.

One of the main reasons for this growth was the sharp rise in world prices for vegetable oils, sugar and cereals. It reached its highest value since September 2011.

The main factor behind the increase in grain prices was the rise in price of corn: the average value of prices exceeded last year's figure by 89.9%. May wheat prices were 6.8% higher than in April. The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index rose 7.8% in May due to higher prices for palm, soybean and rapeseed oils.

Sugar also rose in price - by 6.8%. The reasons were delays in the harvesting campaign and the expectation of low yields in Brazil, the world's largest exporter of sugar. Significant supplies of sugar from India somewhat slowed down the rise in prices, but could not compensate for the negative factors.

Meat prices rose by 2.2% in May, mainly due to increased imports to China , as well as growth in domestic demand for poultry and pork meat in the leading producing regions.

The FAO Dairy Price Index increased by 1.8% due to strong import demand for skimmed and whole milk powder .

The FAO Price Index is the result of tracking fluctuations in world prices for the most popular food commodities. The index is published monthly.