This from the Financial Times on world food prices:-
The soaring food prices that have triggered global political and economic turmoil over the past year have finally shown the first tentative signs of stabilising.
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation food price index, considered the best measure of global food inflation, saw its first decline in 15 months in April, as wheat, dairy, sugar and soyabean prices fell.
The article finished with:-
The last time the FAO food index posted a monthly drop was in January 2007, but that proved a blip. This time officials are more confident that some prices will stop rising or even fall as farmers plant more crops to take advantage of record prices amid better weather than last year.
Agriculture experts warned prices could continue to rise because of the growing appetite for crops for the biofuels industry and bad weather, such as the cyclone in Burma.
They said retail prices could also keep climbing even if wholesale food inflation stabilises, as companies pass on previous increases to consumers.
It will be interesting to see whether any impact registers here as regards dairy products and the fortunes of Fonterra.
Tags: Dairy Industry, FAO, FAO food price index, Fonterra, Food Prices
