The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced Friday a slight increase in average prices of global basic food commodities in April 2023, affected by a rise in sugar prices to the highest level in 12 years.

In its monthly report issued Friday, the organization said the FAO-benchmark index of the average prices of the most traded food commodities rose in April to 127.2 points, an increase of 0.8 points, or 0.6 percent, compared with its level in March, to remain 31.2 points, or 18.7 percent, lower than its level in April 2022.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of commonly-traded food commodities, averaged 127.2 points in April 2023, up 0.6 percent from March, the FAO said on its website.

The report noted that the FAO Sugar Price Index went up 22.4 points, 17.6 percent, it a fourth rise per month, reaching its highest level since October 2011.

The FAO Meat Price Index increased 1.3 percent in April, an increase of 6.1 percent, compared with its level in the same month in 2022, it elaborated.

The FAO Cereal Price Index dropped 1.7 percent last month and averaged 19.8 percent below its April 2022 value, according to the report. The FAO index of food prices monitor commercial transactions of five basic food commodities at global food markets.

Source: Kuwait News Agency