The UN’s benchmark food and commodity prices index rose sharply on average through 2021, compared with the previous year.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the agency’s Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices, averaged 125.7 points – a 28.1 percent increase over 2020.
FAO Senior Economist Abdolreza Abbassian explained that, normally, high prices are expected to ease as production increases to match demand. This time, however, the consistently high cost of inputs, the ongoing global pandemic and ever more volatile climatic conditions “leave little room for optimism about a return to more stable market conditions even in 2022.”—TLTP
