Food Commodity Prices Rise

For the first time in seven months, the world benchmark index for food commodity prices has gone up. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which tracks monthly changes in international food commodity prices, says there has been an increase in international quotations in three commodities: Vegetable oils, dairy products, and meat pushed the index up by 1.1%. The cause of the increases in vegetable oils were attributed to seasonally lower outputs in leading palm oil producing countries and a firm domestic demand in South East Asia. Cheese and butter increased by 2.9% from February, reflecting the steady import demand from Asia and higher internal sales in Western Europe. The price of meat also rose by 1.7% over the previous month. This was driven by higher demand by leading import countries.