Food prices soar to record levels on Ukraine war disruptions

11-Apr-2022 - Italy

Prices for food commodities like grains and vegetable oils reached their highest levels ever last month because of Russia's war in Ukraine and the ``massive supply disruptions'' it is causing, the United Nations said Friday.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said its Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices for a basket of commodities, averaged 159.3 points last month, up 12.6% from February. As it is, the February index was the highest level since its inception in 1990.

FAO said the war in Ukraine was largely responsible for the 17.1% rise in grains, including wheat and others like oats, barley and corn. Russia and Ukraine together account for around 30% and 20% of global wheat and corn exports, respectively.

While predictable given February's steep rise, ``this is really remarkable,'' said Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of FAO's markets and trade division. ``Clearly, these very high prices for food require urgent action.''

The biggest price increases were for vegetable oils: the vegetable oil price index rose 23.2%, driven by higher quotations for sunflower seed oil. Ukraine is the world's leading exporter of sunflower oil.

``There is, of course, a massive supply disruption, and that massive supply disruption from the Black Sea region has fueled prices for vegetable oil," Schmidhuber told reporters in Geneva.

More ``well behaved prices'' were the ingredients for rice pudding, he said: rice, dairy and sugar.(dpa)

https://www.yumda.com/en/news/1175593/food-prices-soar-to-record-levels-on-ukraine-war-disruptions.html