ROME, March 8 (Xinhua) -- A drop in the prices of grains and cereals in February contributed to a downward trend in global food prices, although sugar, meat and dairy prices continued to increase, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Friday.
Grains and cereals cost 5 percent less than in January and 22.4 percent less year-on-year, with all the major cereal commodities seeing prices slip, FAO said.
The trade routes remained stable amid the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which helped stabilize corn prices, while wheat prices fell due to higher exports from Russia. Rice and corn prices also benefited from new corp harvests.
The overall FAO Food Price Index was 0.7 percent lower in February despite increases in three of five subcategories.
The other subcategory that saw prices fall was vegetable oils, which slipped 1.3 percent due to decreases in the prices of soy, sunflower and rapeseed. This benefited from broadly favorable harvest conditions.
Sugar prices climbed 3.2 percent in February due to worries that low rainfall would damage the harvest in Brazil, while meat prices were 1.8 percent higher due to unusually strong global demand and lower beef exports from Australia, reversing the trend of seven months of consecutive price declines.
Dairy prices were 1.1 percent above the January level due in part to strong butter and whole milk powder imports to Asia.
