Commodities Buzz: World food prices at highest point since 2022, says FAO

World food prices rose in August to their highest since late 2022, as adverse weather and war disruption in the Gulf and Black Sea heightened concern over supply of staples, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. Extreme heat and drought in Europe, the threat of a severe El Ni?o weather pattern and trade upheaval caused by the Ukraine and Iran wars have unsettled agricultural markets, pushing grain prices to three-year highs and sugar to a one-year peak. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in a basket of internationally traded food commodities, averaged 133.3 points in August, up from July's revised reading of 130.8. That was the highest score since November 2022, though nearly 17% below a record peak from March 2022, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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