FAO food price index falls 1.2% in October as cereals ease

AgricultureEconomy

Friday 6th November 2026

Young rice plants growing in a flooded field at Itigi, Tanzania, photographed on 17 February 2020. — File photograph: Rice field at Itigi, Tanzania, 17 February 2020. Photo: Charstone Simon / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized; no other edits.

By inAfrika Newsroom

Global food commodity prices fell 1.2% in October as cheaper cereals, dairy products and meat outweighed increases in sugar and vegetable oils, the Food and Agriculture Organization said on 6 November.

Its Food Price Index averaged 133.9 points, down 1.6 points from September’s revised reading but 5.9% above a year earlier.

The cereal index dropped 4.5%. FAO attributed lower wheat prices to weak international demand and a better production outlook, particularly in Argentina. The US harvest helped push maize quotations lower.

Rice moved in the opposite direction, rising 1.6% as delayed harvests, adverse weather and higher costs supported prices. Vegetable oils edged up 0.3%, with gains in soybean and sunflower oil offsetting cheaper rapeseed oil.

The index measures international commodity prices across five food groups. It does not measure prices paid by Tanzanian shoppers.

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