FAO Food Price Index sees fastest rises in18 months

ROME: The benchmark for world food commodity prices saw its fastest increase in 18 months in September, with quotations up for all covered commodity groups, led by sugar, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported Friday. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a set of globally-traded food commodities, averaged 124.4 points in September, up 3.0 percent from August and 2.1 percent higher than its corresponding value a year earlier. The FAO Sugar Price Index registered the largest increase in September, rising by 10.4 percent. This was driven by worsening crop prospects in Brazil and concerns that India's decision to lift restrictions on sugarcane use for ethanol production may affect export availabilities from the country. FAO raised marginally its forecast for global cereal production in 2024 to 2.853 billion tonnes, reflecting upward revisions to rice and wheat outputs that outweighed a small reduction made to global coarse gra ins production. The new figure, also published on Friday in the new Cereal Supply and Demand Brief, remains moderately below the record output of 2023. Global cereal stocks are predicted to expand by 1.2 percent, with rice stocks seen increasing three times faster. Source: Emirates News Agency