Global food prices surge to record high, driven up by Russia-Ukraine war

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced on Friday that its FAO Food Price Index, that tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a "basket of commonly-traded food commodities," averaged 159.3 points in March and is up 12.6 percent from February.

The month-on-month increase in food prices has been almost 13 percent and within this the subcategories have seen a rise across sectors. The best of the gains have come in from veg oils. Cereals, if you leave rice out that actually has seen a price decline. But all core cereals and wheat prices have gone up by about 20 percent in the last month.

Meat is also trading at record highs, dairy while has gained 2.50 percent month-on-month but it also has gained 20 percent year-on-year basis there. Sugar prices after three months of decline have jumped up by nearly 6.50 percent for the month of March.

Also, the Russia-Ukraine war clearly has been the major reason for the surge in prices as the two countries’ combined share is much higher for most of these commodities.