International prices for a basket of food commodities rose by 8.2 per cent in 2017, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index.
The FAO Food Price Index averaged 174.6 points in 2017, which was up by 8.2 percent from the previous year and the highest annual average since 2014. However, it was still well below the record high of 229.9 points hit in 2011.
On a monthly basis, the Index averaged 169.9 points in December 2017, which was down by 5.8 points from November and compares with the 170.3 reading in December 2016.
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The FAO Food Price Index covers five commodity groups: cereals, vegetable oil, meat, dairy, and sugar. Only the sugar price index was down on the year.
The Cereal Price Index averaged 151.6 points in 2017, which was up a modest 3.2 percent from the previous year.
The FAO said slow sales and ample supplies were weighing on wheat prices in late 2016, but that was countered by increases in rice and corn.
The Vegetable Oil Index was up by about three percent on the year, to average roughly 169 points in 2017.
However, vegetable oil prices were declining over the latter half of the year, with large palm oil supplies and upward revisions to the size of Canada’s canola crop cited as contributing to the weakness.
The Meat Price Index averaged 170 points in 2017, which was up nine percent from 2016, but still 4.7 percent below the previous five-year average.
Large increases in butter prices sent the Dairy Price Index up by 31.5 percent on the year to 202.2 points. Meanwhile, a bumper sugar cane harvest in Brazil contributed to the Sugar Price Index declining 11.2 percent in 2017, to an average of 227.3 points.
