Food and hunger crisis, and FAO's Food Price Index

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  Food and hunger crisis, and FAO's Food Price Index

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• The story: World food prices increased for a eleventh consecutive month in April 2021, hitting their highest level since May 2014, with sugar leading a rise in all the main indices, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.
• What is FPO's FPI: The Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 120.9 points last month versus a revised 118.9 in March.

1. The March figure was previously given as 118.5. FAO said that new forecasts pointed to growth in both world wheat and maize output in the coming season.
2. FAO's cereal price index rose 1.2% in April month-on-month and 26% year-on-year. Worries about crop conditions in Argentina, Brazil and the United States pushed maize prices up 5.7% last month, while wheat prices held largely steady. By contrast, international rice prices slipped.
3. FAO's vegetable oil price index rose 1.8% on the month, pushed higher by rising soy, rapeseed and palm oil quotations, which offset lower sunflower oil values.
4. Dairy prices rose 1.2%, with butter, skim milk powder and cheese all lifted by good demand from Asia, while the meat index climbed 1.7%. FAO said both bovine and ovine meat quotations rose, supported by "solid demand" from East Asia.
5. After a sharp drop in March, sugar prices rebounded in April, posting a 3.9% increase on the month and an almost 60% surge on the year. The monthly increase was prompted by strong buying amid concerns over tighter supplies in 2020/21, due to a slow harvest in Brazil and frost damage in France.
6. FAO raised its forecast for global cereal production in 2020 by 1.7 million tonnes to 2.767 billion tonnes, 2.1% up on 2019 levels.

• Coming season: The U.N. agency also provided its first outlook for wheat in the 2021/22 season, forecasting production at 778.8 million tonnes, up 0.5% on the 2020 estimate, lifted by an anticipated 6% increase in output in the European Union. FAO said that early prospects for global coarse grains production in 2021 pointed to a likely third consecutive year of growth, mostly related to maize. It said the forecast was driven by expectations of increased planted areas in Brazil, China, Ukraine and the United States, as well as recovering yields in the EU.
• Facing hunger: The 307-page Global Report on Food Crises was released. At least 155 million people faced acute hunger in 2020, including 133,000 who needed urgent food to prevent widespread death from starvation—and the outlook for 2021 is equally grim or worse. This was mentioned in this report by 16 organisations. The report, which focuses on 55 countries that account for 97% of humanitarian assistance, said the magnitude and severity of food crises last year worsened as a result of protracted conflicts, the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, and weather extremes that exacerbated “pre-existing fragilities.”

1. The 155 million people faced “crisis,” “emergency” or “catastrophe/famine” levels of food needs, an increase of around 20 million people from 2019.
2. Two-thirds of the people in those crisis levels were in 10 countries—Congo, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, northern Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Zimbabwe and Haiti. The 133,000 facing starvation, death and destitution were in Burkina Faso, South Sudan and Yemen.
3. The number of people facing acute food insecurity and requiring urgent food, nutrition and livelihoods assistance is on the rise. 
4. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote the forward to this report.
5. First and foremost, declining incomes as a result of the 255 million jobs lost in the pandemic — “four times more than the financial crisis” in 2008 - was repsonsible. 
6. In terms of the prevalence of people facing crisis, emergency or famine levels of food needs, the report said Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria had more than half their analyzed populations at the crisis level or worse, and five countries—Afghanistan, Haiti, Lesotho, Yemen and Zimbabwe—had between 40% and 45% of their populations at those levels.

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