Full shelves with fruits are pictured in a supermarket during the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Berlin, Germany, March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch
Global Food prices fell for a sixth month, potentially offering relief to consumers battered by across-the-board inflation.
Agricultural demand is easing on mounting worries about an economic downturn that risks curbing dairy sales and biofuel use. Plus, crop exports from Ukraine have picked up, buffering world grain supplies that had been threatened by Russia’s invasion.
A United Nations gauge of food prices declined 1.1% in September to the lowest since January. Costs for vegetable oils, sugar, meat and dairy products retreated, keeping the index in the longest slump since 2015, the agency’s Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.
Food inflation flared worldwide this year as the war curbed crop supplies from the vital Black Sea region. While the picture improved somewhat in recent months after a deal was struck for Ukraine to resume seaborne shipments, much will depend on efforts to extend the crop-export corridor beyond mid-November.
World food-commodity prices are now about 15% below a record set in March, though the latest decline will take a while to trickle through to grocery stores. Supermarket prices are also determined by energy, transportation and labor costs.
