Global price of food has fallen 7% last year

Although they have been one of the main responsible for high inflation in Brazil, the international average prices of food fell back in 2012, said yesterday the United Nations food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
In the year, the price index of the entity was 211.6 points, on average, a decline of 7% from 2011. This was only the second time that food prices have dropped since 2002-the other was in 2009, a year marked by international crisis arising from the financial bubble burst of the United States.
After three straight months of decline, the indicator retreated in December to the lowest level, points 209.3 since June.
"The result represents a reversal from July, when the escalation in prices sparked fears of a new food crisis," said Jomo Sundaram, Assistant Director of the Department of economic and Social development of FAO. According to him, the economic downturn has helped abbreviate the pressure on commodities.
Despite the cooling, the average price of food last year was still the second largest historical series-lower only to the previous year's record. Since 2002, the index accumulated high is 125%.
All food groups monitored by FAO have registered a devaluation last year. Sugar led the movement, with 17.1% drop, pressured by expectations of an increase, for the third year, of world production and exportable surpluses.
In December, the sugar price indicator has reached the lowest level since August of 2010, having retreated more than 20% from the peak recorded in February, after the improvement in prospects for the harvest of sugar cane in Brazil, the largest producer.
The sugar was closely followed by dairy, which retreated 14.5% in 2012. According to FAO, this market remains "well stocked" globally, but is "increasingly susceptible" to changes in supply resulting from a possible worsening grazing conditions and availability of rations.
Vegetable oils already registered 10.7% drop, pressured by the rise in global stocks of palm oil (Palm oil).
Cereals and meat, in turn, recorded more modest losses of 2.4% and 1.1%, respectively. Despite the drop in the annual average, the cereal index ended 14.7% above the level of December 2011, pressured by the expectation of world supersafra, but soon fired with the fall in production in South America and, mainly, in the United States--between December and September, prices rose by more than 20%.
Since October, however, the trend was reversed and international prices for cereals began to sag. "Corn prices have dropped sharply in December, with South America supplying the global demand in place of the United States. Rice prices also fell with the expectation of good harvest, but the little wheat values have changed, "noted the UN Agency for Agriculture and food.