World food prices in December continued to retreat from February’s record high, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization reported Thursday.
The Rome-based FAO said its Food Price Index averaged 211 points in December. That was a 2.4 per cent drop from November and 11.3 per cent less than last year’s peak.
The index tracks changes in the prices of 55 commodities.
The FAO said bumper crops in several commodities combined with slowing demand and a stronger U.S. dollar led to sharp drops in the international prices of cereals, sugar and oils.
Still, it said the annual average for 2011 was a record high.
In December, cereal prices fell 4.8 per cent, the oils and fats index was lower by three per cent, meats were down slightly, dairy products were unchanged and sugar fell four per cent.
The data was released less than two weeks after the new head of the FAO, Jose Graziano da Silva, took over his duties with a prediction that food prices would remain volatile in 2012 — and more people would go hungry.
High food prices contributed to the unrest of the Arab Spring early last year and raised fears of a repeat of the food price crises in 2007 and 2008.
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