(Bloomberg) – World food prices fell for a second month in June, led by declines in dairy and sugar on prospects of rising global output, the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization said.
An index of 55 food items traced by the FAO fell 0.9 percent to 211.3 points last month from a revised 213.2 points in May, the Rome-based agency wrote in an online report today. The measure, which climbed to a record 237.9 points in February 2011, is up 5.4 percent from a year earlier.
“Last month’s decline reflects a drop in sugar and especially dairy prices, with more contained slides affecting cereals and oils,” the FAO wrote. In dairy, “calm is returning to the market, after an abrupt fall in New Zealand’s end-of-season output, as dairy supplies are being sourced elsewhere, including Europe and the United States.”
The dairy price index slid 4.3 percent in June, after rising in April to the highest since December 2007 as drought cut supplies in New Zealand. The sugar index fell 3 percent last month, while a gauge of grain prices declined 1 percent, the FAO said.
