World prices are down for the twelfth consecutive month, down 20.5% in March 2023. Goffkein / stock.adobe.com
“Abundant supplies, weak import demand and the expansion of the Black Sea Grains Initiative have contributed to this decline,” the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said in a statement. agriculture (FAO) in its press release.
French consumers, looking at labels in their supermarkets, would find it hard to believe: world food prices are falling sharply. Down for the twelfth consecutive month, they fell 20.5% in March 2023 compared to March 2022 when the markets were feeling the first effects of the war in Ukraine.
« Abundant supplies, weak import demand” and the maritime grain corridor allowing exports from Ukraine have contributed to this decline, indicates the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Over one month, the FAO food price index, which tracks the change in international prices of a basket of products, fell by 2.1%. The drop in prices for cereals (-5.6% over one month) and vegetable oils (-3%) offset the rise in sugar (+1.5%). This one is at son the highest level since October 2016. It reflects “ concerns over declining production prospects in India, Thailand and China “, notes the FAO.
Wheat prices fell 7%, driven by strong production in Australia, improved crops in the European Union, large supplies in Russia and continued exports from Ukraine.
Nevertheless, “while prices have fallen globally, they remain very high and continue to rise in domestic markets, posing additional challenges for food security “, tempers Maximo Torero, chief economist of the FAO.
This is the case in net food-importing developing countries, where the situation“is aggravated by the depreciation of currencies and the growing debt burden“, he underlines.
This is also the case in some advanced economies, with increases reverberating throughout the commercial chain over months and price renegotiations. In France, food prices jumped 15.8% over one year in March.