The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that the FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices of food products, closed last year approximately 2.1 percent below its 2023 level.
FAO announced the December results of the Global Food Price Index, which monitors the monthly changes in international prices of food products.
Accordingly, the FAO Food Price Index reached an average of 127 points in December, with an increase of 0.5 percent compared to the previous month and 6.7 percent compared to December 2023.
The index, the FAO benchmark of world food commodity prices, finished 2024 2.1 percent below the previous year’s level, as significant declines in grain and sugar prices were offset by smaller increases in prices of vegetable oils, dairy products and meat.
It was noteworthy that global food prices decreased in December, led by sugar.
The Sugar Price Index decreased by 5.2 percent compared to November, driven by improved sugarcane crop expectations in main producing countries such as Brazil and India. It was noteworthy that the index completed 2024 13.1 percent below the previous year’s level.
Vegetable Oil Price Index decreased by 0.5 percent on a monthly basis. The index rose 9.4 percent above the previous year’s level due to the tightening of global supply throughout 2024.
Grain Price Index remained unchanged on a monthly basis. The index remained 13.3 percent behind the previous year’s level in all of 2024, recording its second annual decline after the record level in 2022.
During the same period, the FAO Dairy Price Index fell by 0.5 in November, after seven consecutive months of increases. The index remained 17 percent above its December 2023 value. In 2024, the index rose 4.3 percent above the previous year’s level due to the increase in butter prices.
Meat Price Index also increased by 0.4 percent in December compared to November. It rose 7.1 percent above the December 2023 value. The index completed 2024 2.7 percent above the previous year’s level.
