Food prices notched a 1.3% monthly increase with Russia's suspension of a wartime deal that allowed Ukrainian food shipments to reach global markets and India's ban on exports of non-Basmati white rice.
The Food and Agriculture Organization's Food Price Index, which shows the monthly change in global prices of food commodities, rebounded in July mainly due to the rising price of rice and vegetable oils. The last such increase was in April due to higher sugar prices.
This month's Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports and a grain silo further drove up prices of maize, wheat and soybean oil.
Adding to the pressure on food prices, India, the world's biggest rice exporter, moved to raise domestic food supplies and lower costs by banning exports of non-Basmati white rice on Jul. 20, dealing a blow to Asian, African and Middle Eastern consumers.
The upward pressure on rice prices “raises substantial food security concerns for a large swath of the world population, especially those that are most poor and who dedicate a larger share of their incomes to purchase food,” FAO warned.
International sunflower oil prices rose more than 15% in a month mostly due to "renewed uncertainties surrounding the exportable supplies" after Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, FAO said.
"International wheat prices rose by 1.6%," it said, "their first monthly increase in nine months, due to uncertainty over exports from Ukraine as well as continued dry conditions in North America."
A reversal in downward trending prices
World prices for palm, soy and rapeseed oils rose on concerns over "output prospects in leading producing countries." Cereal prices dropped 0.5% with more seasonal supplies of maize from Argentina and Brazil and potentially higher U.S. production.
World cheese prices recovered slightly, FAO said, after steep recent declines as hot weather affected seasonally declining milk supplies in Europe. Until July, commodity prices had been steadily falling from the record high levels they hit last year due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
Russian warships blockaded Ukraine's ports on the Black Sea, and it took months to negotiate the safe sea corridors managed by the U.N.'s Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Center.
Last month, however, Russia's President Vladimir Putin announced he was backing out of the U.N.-administered agreement that had allowed Ukraine to export more than 30 million metric tons of grain and agricultural products.
That sent grain prices up as much as 17% in the first week, and diminished efforts to curb global hunger, poverty and inflation, particulary among poorer nations that depend on imports.
The World Bank says the top 10 countries hardest hit by food price inflation are Venezuela, Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Argentina, Suriname, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Turkey and Haiti.
