Food prices jump 24.1% yr/yr to hit record high in Feb, U.N. agency says

FILE PHOTO: Customers walk past a fruit stall at a street market, in Mexico City, Mexico December 17, 2021. REUTERS/Luis Cortes/File Photo

ROME (Reuters) -World food prices hit a record high in February, led by a surge in vegetable oils and dairy products, to post a 24.1% increase year-on-year, the U.N. food agency said on Friday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) food price index https://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/foodpricesindex/en, which tracks the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 140.7 points last month against a downwardly revised 135.4 in January. That figure was previously given as 135.7.