The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Food Price Index averaged almost 172 points in December 2016, unchanged from November with strong gains in the prices of vegetable oils and dairy largely offsetting a fall in sugar and meat quotations.
For 2016 as a whole, the index averaged 161.6 points, down 1.5 percent from 2015, representing the fifth consecutive annual decline. While prices of sugar and vegetable oils rose significantly in 2016, falling prices in cereal, meat and dairy markets kept the Index below its 2015 average.
The FAO Meat Price Index* averaged 161.5 points in December, 1.8 points (1.1 percent) down from its revised value for November. Quotations for ovine and bovine meat in particular fell, while those for poultry and pig meat were only slightly down. Despite modest growth during the course of the year, the average value of the Index in 2016 was 7 percent below that of 2015, with the largest falls recorded for bovine and poultry meats.
The complete FAO report is available at http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en/.
