There will probably be a few headlines today about “rising world food prices”. However, those articles will primarily be about agricultural commodity prices, which are measured in the FAO’s “global food price index”, not necessarily retail food prices.
The increase in the recent month is not widespread but in a few commodities – dairy and vegetable oils. We see declines in meat, cereals, and sugar prices. But these were overshadowed by the dairy and vegetable oils. Thus, the overall headline of the index is up slightly in November compared to the previous month.
The FAO’s global Food Price Index, a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, increased by 0,5% in November 2024 from the previous month to 127 points. This is its highest value since April 2023. Dairy products and vegetable oils mainly underpinned this increase. The FAO’s Food Price Index is now 6% up from November 2023.
Still, the current reading of the Food Price Index is 20% below its peak of 160.2 points reached in March 2022.
As South Africans, it is always essential that we monitor these global developments. However, our key import commodities are wheat, rice, and some vegetable oils. The prices of wheat and rice are moderating due to ample supplies, which benefits importers like South Africa.
As I stated, vegetable oils are increasing. Still, these aren’t aspects to worry about for now as we consider domestic food price dynamics.
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