Global food prices at 10-month high in April: UN body

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Global food prices went up on a monthly basis in April, the UN food body said on Thursday, citing largely rise in meat and diary prices.

The Food Price Index rose 1.5% month-on-month to average at 170 points in April, marking its highest value since June 2018, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a statement.

The figure was 2.3% below its year-ago level, the FAO said.

The FAO Food Price Index is a trade-weighted index that tracks international market prices of five major food commodity groups.

"Except for the sub-index for cereals, all the other sub-indices firmed in April, led by dairy and meat, and to a lesser extent vegetable oils and sugar," the FAO said.

The dairy price index increased 5.2% from March, representing the fourth-consecutive-month-rise.

Last month, the meat price index rose by 3.0% from a month earlier, stemming from a sharp jump in international price quotations of pig meat.

"Also bovine, poultry and ovine meat prices all firmed," it added.

FAO vegetable oil price and sugar price indexes rose by 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively, during the same period.

The UN body said cereal price index fell by 2.8% on a monthly basis in April, led by wheat and maize while rice quotations were broadly stable.