World food prices hit record high in 2022: UN

Prices well above 10-year average, worsening hunger crisis and cost-of-living crunch

PARIS - World food prices fell for a ninth month in a row in December, but hit their highest level on record for the full year in 2022, United Nations data showed on Friday.

Food prices soared to a monthly record high in March after Russia on Feb 24 invaded agricultural powerhouse Ukraine, a major supplier of wheat and cooking oil to the world.

But prices have dropped since then, with more relief brought by a deal brokered by Turkey and the UN in July that lifted a Russian naval blockade on Ukrainian grain exports.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Friday that its price index, which tracks the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, fell to 132.4 points in December, a 1.9 per cent drop from November.

It was also 1 per cent lower than in December 2021.

Prices still remain well above their 10-year average, which has added to a global cost-of-living crunch and exacerbated a hunger crisis that the UN has aimed to quash by the end of the decade.