Average global food prices have decreased for the first time following eight months of constant rises, but still remain more than a third higher than in March 2010, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday, DPA reported.
The FAO Food Price Index averaged 230 points in March 2011, down 2.9 per cent from its peak in February, but still 37 per cent above March of last year, the Rome-based FAO said.
"The decrease in the overall index this month brings some welcome respite from the steady increases seen over the last eight months," the director of FAO's Trade and Market Division, David Hallam, said in a statement,
"But it would be premature to conclude that this is a reversal of the upward trend," he added.
Low stock levels, the impact on oil prices of recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa and the the destruction in Japan due to the recent earthquake and tsunami, "all make for continuing uncertainty and price volatility over the coming months," Hallam said.
Leading the decline in international prices were oils and sugar which had dropped the most, followed by cereals, FAO said.
By contrast, dairy and meat prices were up, although only marginally in the case of meat, FAO said.
UN: Global food prices decline for the first time in eight months
Average global food prices have decreased for the first time following eight months of constant rises, but still remain more than a third higher than in March 2010, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday.
