April may be “the cruelest month,” but it has been kind this year to the world’s food prices. Although the price of food has risen in the US, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) stated that the global price of food has decreased.
The FAO measures the price of food across the world with its own food price index, which decreased by 0.3 points during the month of April this year. It went down from March’s statistic 217.0 to the marginally lower number of 216.7 for April. Unfortunately, the past year has not been a good one for the global economy. This is reflected in the fact that the FAO’s food price index rose by a total of 75 points since April of 2007, when the index was at only 141.7 points.
Nonetheless, the figures for April are relief after 15 months of non-stop growth in the price of food. The FAO, though still wary, hopes that the rapid increase in global food prices has reached its highest point. The organization hopes that perhaps the global economy has reached the point where the price of food will, at least, begin to normalize.
Abdolrea Abbasian, working for the FAO, stated to BBC news that, “since the beginning of May, there have been some positive signs, especially coming form the wheat crop prospects.” The wheat harvests of the world’s farmers are, reportedly, looking good this year. Reportedly, this year’s yield of wheat will be significantly bigger than last year’s.
Nonetheless, others observers are more pessimistic. Joel Segal, working with Ernst & Young warned that, “it is dangerous to look at just one month, especially when the underlying factors remain the same.” Segal alluded to the problems that drove worldwide food prices up in the first place, such worldwide population increase.
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