Global food prices hit 10-year high in 2021
Global food prices hit a 10-year high in 2021, according to a UN report.
World food prices jumped 28 percent in 2021 to their highest level in a decade and hopes for a return to more stable market conditions this year are slim, the U.N.’s food agency said on Thursday.
The FAO food price index averaged at 125.7 points last year, up 27.6 points from 2020.
The monthly index eased slightly in December but had climbed for the previous four months in a row, indicating harvest setbacks and strong demand over the past year.
However, at 133.7 points, it remained close to the record of 137.6 points it set in February 2011.
FAO Senior Economist Abdolreza Abbassian in a statement said, “While normally high prices are expected to give way to increased production, the high cost of inputs, ongoing global pandemic and ever more uncertain climatic conditions leave little room for optimism about a return to more stable market conditions even in 2022,”
