Food prices pick up as trade tensions and extreme weather flare

Dubai: Global food prices rose for the first time in three months, as trade disruptions from India to the Black Sea and extreme weather stoke supply concerns anew.

The United Nations’ index of food-commodity prices gained 1.3 per cent in July, led by vegetable oil, according to a Friday report. That marks a pickup from the two-year low reached the prior month as fresh threats emerge in the supply chain.

Last month, Russia exited the Black Sea grain deal that helped usher millions of tons of Ukrainian crops abroad. On top of that, top rice exporter India banned some shipments of the staple, and extreme weather is curbing harvests in places like China and southern Europe.

The rice index from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization reached its highest nominal level since 2011, following the curbs in India. That “raises substantial food security concerns for a large swathe of the world population, especially those that are most poor and who dedicate a larger share of their incomes to purchase food,” the FAO said.

That poses a fresh risk for food inflation, which remains high at the global level. Prices are still soaring in Egypt, although the run-up has begun to slow or decline in nations like Kenya and Brazil.