FAO Food Price Index

We begin this morning across global agriculture, where a severe compounding of climate extremes and logistics bottlenecks is pushing food costs sharply higher for vulnerable populations.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Price Index climbed to 136 points in September, touching its highest mark in nearly four years.

More than one in five countries monitored by the World Bank now sees domestic food inflation outrunning top-line inflation, with core staples like wheat up over 30% this year alone.

In Southeast Asia, an exceptional El Niño weather cycle has dried out the Kapuas River in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

[upbeat music] Our first story this week is all about food prices, which last month hit their highest level in nearly four years as a very strong El Nino builds.

The UN's Food and Agricultural Organization Food Price Index summarizes global food prices, and this has reached its highest level since November 2022.

Wheat prices have been pushed up by the collapse of the Black Sea trade, sugar by fears over El Nino weather, and palm oil by risks to Southeast Asian output.

The FAO's chief economist, Maximo Torero, described a, quote, "persistent and increasingly broad-based buildup in global commodity prices, with hummus, the Black Sea, and climate shocks all pressing on energy, transport, and food at once.

And you can already see some of these pressures showing up in global food prices.

The FAO, Food and Agricultural Organization tracks this using an index called the FAO Food Price Index.

It is essentially a global thermometer for food prices, which tracks the international prices of a basket of major food items, including cereals and sugar to meat, dairy, and vegetable oils.

The index rose to one thirty-six points in September twenty twenty-six, up one point five percent from August and five point eight percent from a year earlier.