World food prices surge 20.7% to hit record high in Feb

World food prices hit a record high last month, jumping 20.7 per cent from a year earlier, led by a surge in the costs of vegetable oils and dairy products, the United Nations food agency said.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) food price index, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, rose 3.9 per cent from January.

The data was compiled before war broke out in Ukraine, which has pushed commodity prices higher still.

Russia and Ukraine account for about 29 per cent of global wheat exports, 19 per cent of corn exports and 80 per cent of exports of sunflower oil, which competes with soya oil.