World food prices steady in March, UN's FAO says

PARIS (Reuters) - Global food commodity prices edged up in March, with a sharp rise in vegetable oils offsetting declines in cereals and sugar, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in a basket of internationally traded food commodities, averaged 127.1 points in March against a revised estimate of 126.8 for February.

The March reading was up 6.9% from a year earlier but 20.7% below a March 2022 peak following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

For vegetable oils, FAO's price index increased by 3.7% from February, with quotations for palm, soy, rapeseed and sunflower oils all rising on the back of strong import demand, the agency said.

The price reading for vegetable oils was up 23.9% from a year earlier.

FAO's cereal price indicator was down 2.6% from the previous month and now showing a 1.1% year-on-year decrease.

Wheat prices fell, as concerns over crop conditions in some major Northern Hemisphere exporting countries eased. Maize (corn) and sorghum quotations also declined, while barley prices increased slightly.

FAO's all-rice index fell 1.7% from the prior month amid weak import demand and ample export supply, the agency said.

Average sugar prices dropped by 1.6%, driven by signs of weaker global demand. Rainfall in southern Brazil contributed to the decline, though losses were limited by concerns about overall prospects in Brazil and also India, FAO said.

The meat price index rose 0.9% on the month, with FAO citing higher pig meat prices in Europe after Germany regained food-and-mouth-disease-free status.

World poultry meat prices remained largely stable in March, despite widespread avian influenza outbreaks in some major producing countries, it said.

The dairy price index was unchanged from February.

In a separate cereal report, FAO increased slightly its estimate of world cereal production last year, to 2.849 billion metric tons from 2.842 billion previously.

For 2025, FAO kept unchanged its forecast of world wheat production at 795 million tons, also little changed from 2024.

(This story has been corrected to show barley prices increased after FAO corrected its reference, in paragraph 7)

(Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Alison Williams and Toby Chopra)