World food prices climb in November, stay at 10-year peak -FAO

ROME, Dec 2 (Reuters) – World food prices rose for a fourth straight month in November to remain at 10-year highs, led by strong demand for wheat and dairy products, the U.N. food agency said on Thursday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food price index https://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en, which tracks international prices of the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 134.4 points last month compared with a revised 132.8 for October.

The October figure was previously given as 133.2.

The November reading was the highest for the index since June 2011. On a year-on-year basis, the index was up 27.3% last month.

Agricultural commodity prices have risen steeply in the past year, driven by harvest setbacks and strong demand.

Rome-based FAO cut its projection of global cereal production in 2021 to 2.791 billion tonnes from 2.793 billion estimated a month ago, according to its cereal supply and demand outlook .

However, the expected world cereal output would still represent a record, FAO said.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer)