World food prices fall sharply in April because of coronavirus: UN
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ROME: World meals costs fell for a 3rd consecutive month in April, hit by the financial and logistical influence of the coronavirus pandemic, the United Nations meals company mentioned on Thursday.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) meals worth index, which measures month-to-month adjustments for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy merchandise, meat and sugar, averaged 165.5 factors final month, down 3.4% on March.
The FAO sugar worth index fell to a 13-year low, plunging 14.6% from March, with the coronavirus disaster hitting demand and tumbling crude oil costs additionally decreasing the necessity for sugarcane to supply ethanol, the Rome-based company mentioned.
The vegetable oil worth index fell 5.2%, hit by falling palm, soy and rapeseed oil values, whereas the dairy index dropped 3.6%, with butter and milk powder costs posting double-digit declines.
The meat index shed 2.7%, with a partial restoration in import demand from China failing to steadiness a stoop in imports elsewhere. FAO additionally mentioned main producing international locations suffered logistical bottlenecks, whereas coronavirus lockdowns in many countries had brought on a pointy fall in gross sales.
“The pandemic is hitting each the demand and provide sides for meat, as restaurant closures and diminished family incomes result in decrease consumption and labour shortages on the processing facet are impacting just-in-time manufacturing techniques,” mentioned FAO Senior Economist Upali Galketi Aratchilage.
By distinction with the opposite indices, FAO’s cereal worth index declined solely barely, as worldwide costs of wheat and rice rose considerably whereas these of maize dropped sharply.
Rice costs rose 7.2% from March, due largely to momentary export restrictions by Vietnam that had been subsequently repealed, FAO mentioned. Wheat costs rose 2.5% amid stories of a fast fulfilment of the export quota from Russia.
However, costs of coarse grains, together with maize, fell 10%, hit by diminished demand for each animal feed and biofuel manufacturing.
FAO held its forecast for cereal manufacturing largely regular at 2.720 billion tonnes in 2019, however diminished its forecast for cereal utilisation in 2019/20 by 24.7 million tonnes, primarily due to the influence of the coronavirus on the financial system.
FAO additionally unveiled its first forecasts for world wheat provide and demand within the 2020/21 advertising season, predicting world manufacturing at 762.6 million tonnes, broadly according to the 2019 degree.
It mentioned it anticipated smaller harvests within the European Union, North Africa, Ukraine and the United States. This can be largely offset by bigger harvests in Australia, Kazakhstan, Russian and India.
Global wheat utilisation in 2020/21 was anticipated to be steady, with anticipated will increase in meals consumption outweighing reductions in feed and industrial makes use of.
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