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Global food prices fell the most since 2008 as Ukraine began shipping some grain again after a U.N.-brokered deal with Russia to open Black Sea ports.
Ukraine is a key supplier of wheat, corn, and sunflower oil to Europe and much of northern Africa and the Middle East.
A United Nations index of global food prices declined for a fourth consecutive month in July, dropping almost 9 percent last month alone, Bloomberg reported, to its lowest level since January.
“Increased seasonal availabilities in Argentina and Brazil, where maize harvests progressed ahead of their pace last year, also helped to ease the pressure on prices,” the U.N’s Food and Agriculture Organization said in a statement.
TREND FORECAST: As we have reported, across the commodities board, despite prices easing many are still near record highs and/or much higher than before the COVID War began in 2020. Indeed, food prices around the world are still at or near record levels, and with current weather patterns heating up and drying up the Earth, not only will prices stay high, food insecurity in vulnerable regions will escalate.
Africa’s Sahel, which covers most of the continent south of the Sahara desert, faces its worst food shortage in ten years, threatening famine among tens of millions of people.
And despite prices going down, big food manufactures will still raise prices as much as they can to cover rising costs of raw materials and supply chain disruptions.