Food prices soar

Strong demand should support the world prices of food in 2018, predicted yesterday the United Nations food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
World food prices rose 8.2% in the last year about 2016, reaching your highest annual value from 2014, highlighted an index compiled by FAO.
The food on international markets are still 24% below the 2011 peak, says the report, and the supply of many commodities that make up the index of FAO, such as cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar remains wide. In Brazil, for example, the grain sector just register record harvest in 2016/2017. "The general feeling is that we know what are the needed supplies and there's no excuse for thinking that demand may weaken," explains Senior Economist, Abdolreza Abbassian.
The FAO indicator rose in 2017, despite a fall of 3.3 percent in December compared to November, with sharp retreat in prices of dairy products, vegetable oils and sugar. Abundant and low demand exports weighed on the share price of international skimmed milk and whole milk powder, as well as the cheese and butter. Still, the sub-index was 31.5% up to 2016.
Balance sheet
In December, the index of prices of vegetable oils fell 5.6 percent compared to November. The sugar also fell, marking low 4.1% since November. The index of cereals remained stable.