Global food prices plummet, UN

New York, 04 June –(ANA)-International prices of key food staples dropped in the first five months of this year, driven largely by plummeting prices of cereals and sugar, according to a new United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) The FAO Food Price Index – the average of commodity prices, including meat and dairy – averaged 164 points in May, down from 174 in January and substantially less than its peak of 214 reached in the spring of 2008. 

Sugar prices have plunged by half from their peak earlier this year due to possible significant production increases.But the Food Outlook report said that despite the fall in the Index, the cost of the typical food commodity basket globally today is still nearly 70 per cent higher than it was between 2002 and 2004.(ANA)

FA/ANA/04 June 2010--------