War in Ukraine: world food prices at an all-time high, says UN
Steph Deschamps / April 8, 2022
World food prices reached their highest levels on record in March, due to the war in Ukraine, which is causing shocks in the grain and vegetable oil markets, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced on Friday.
The FAO food price index, which tracks the monthly change in international prices of a basket of basic food products, had already beaten in February its record since its inception in 1990, and recorded in March a new increase of 12.6% from one month to another, said the organization in a statement.
This increase is mainly attributable to the FAO cereal price index, which recorded an increase of 17.1% compared to February, driven by strong increases in the prices of wheat and all coarse grains, mainly due to the war in Ukraine.
Food prices are also being driven up by vegetable oils, whose FAO index jumped 23.2%, driven by higher sunflower oil prices, of which the world's leading exporter is Ukraine.
At the same time, prices of palm oil, soybean and rapeseed oil are also rising sharply, due to an increase in global import demand caused by supply disruptions in sunflower oil.