Global food prices drop to lowest levels since invasion of Ukraine

Global food prices have fallen to their lowest levels since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UN data shows.

Food prices have fallen back down to levels last seen at the start of 2022, before Russia’s February invasion of the breadbasket of Europe caused food prices to surge, data from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows.

The price of vegetable oils, dairy, meat and sugar fell sharply over the summer after peaking in the immediate aftermath of the invasion in March of this year.

Food prices are now lingering only slightly above their pre-invasion levels, having dropped marginally over the previous month, data from the FAO shows.

Prices are currently down 14.9 per cent on March levels but remained 2.7 per cent higher than in October last year, the UN figures show.

Grains were the only food group to have increased in price from September to October, amid uncertainty around the future of safe shipping corridors allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain.

Together, Russia and Ukraine account for a quarter of the world’s wheat exports, a quarter of the world’s barley, and two thirds of the world’s sunflower oil.