Mubasher: Global food prices continued to decline for the third month in a row, led by a sharp fall of the prices of sugar, wheat and maize, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

The FAO’s food index, which tracks monthly price movements for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, hit an average of 169.8 points in August, compared with an upwardly 171.7 points in July.

Sugar prices dropped by 4% month-on-month last August, “largely on the back of a weakening Brazilian real, which tends to incentivize sugar exports.”

The United Nations (UN) food agency’s cereal index dropped by 6.4% last month, owing notable declines in the prices of wheat and other grains like maize, while rice prices bucked the trend.

Such drops failed to offset gains in other indices, with the vegetable oil price index climbing 5.9% and both meat and dairy prices edging up by 0.5%.

 FAO projected world cereal supplies in 2019/20 to be higher than previously expected at 2.708 billion tonnes, 23 million tonnes higher than July’s estimate and around 55.4 million tonnes on last year’s levels.

The expected growth exceed the anticipated reduction in global wheat production this year.

Wheat supply is set to come in at 767 million tonnes, 4 million tonnes lower than July’s projection.