World food prices steady in March, UN's FAO says

Global food commodity prices edged up in March, with a sharp rise in vegetable oils offsetting declines in cereals and sugar, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday.

- Reuters

PARIS:

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in a basket of internationally traded food commodities, averaged 127.1 points in March against a revised estimate of 126.8 for February.

The March reading was up 6.9% from a year earlier but 20.7% below a March 2022 peak following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

For vegetable oils, FAO's price index increased by 3.7% from February, with quotations for palm, soy, rapeseed and sunflower oils all rising on the back of strong import demand, the agency said.