WEF 2022: Why are global food commodity prices near an all-time high?

Higher global food prices are part of a wider trend of cost-of-living increases already at work in both advanced and emerging economies.

Global food commodity prices went down slightly in April following an all-time high the month before, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The drop was led by a slight dip in the prices of vegetable oils and cereals. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 158.5 points in April 2022, down 0.8 per cent from March. But the Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of a basket of commonly traded food commodities, remained 29.8 per cent higher than in April 2021.

The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index decreased by 5.7 per cent in April, shedding almost