After falling 2.8 percent in 2018, FAO’s Food Price Index (FFPI) is down 2.7 percent YOY for the first four months of 2019. (The index, adjusted for inflation, uses as baseline food price data from 2002 through 2004.) Looking at monthly data, April 2019 was the 19th straight month of YOY declines.
Only one component of the FFPI has seen average growth in the last 12 months, the Cereals Price Index, up 3.0 percent. Every other component was down: Meat, down 7.4 percent; Dairy, down 6.6 percent; Oils, down 20.1 percent; and Sugar, down 14.9 percent.
In April, only two component indexes showed growth, Dairy and Sugar. The Dairy Index was up 5.3 percent YOY, the fourth straight month of gains. The surprising second Index to show gains was Sugar, up 3.2 percent YOY—the first time in exactly two years.
Cereals, which had a streak of gains from August 2018 through February 2019, saw YOY losses in the last two months. The Oils Index is the undisputed biggest loser with 25 straight months of YOY declines.
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