Global food prices rose in March. The reasons for this were the higher prices for cereals and dairy products, the FAO said. The FAO Food Price Index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, rose to an average of 172.8 points in March, an increase of 1.1% on the month of February.
Although price decreases for sugar and edible oil fell, they were unable to compensate for the rise in prices for corn, wheat and most dairy products.
The FAO estimates that grain production will reach 2.646 billion tonnes in 2017, an increase of 33 million tonnes by 2016. For 2018, based on initial estimates, the FAO expects corn and wheat production to decline. For wheat, the estimate is 750 million tonnes, which would be a drop of more than 1% compared to 2017.
