Food prices tracked monthly by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) climbed for the third straight month in April. This Thursday (5th) in Rome, the FAO reported that food prices reached 151.8 points, up 0.7% from March. Still, the score was 10% lower than in April 2015.
The FAO Food Price Index monitors the prices of over 40 different products, divided into five commodity groups: vegetable oils, cereals, meats, sugar and dairy. Scores are given to each group individually and then a final overall score is computed. The higher the prices, the higher the score. The cheaper the prices, the lower the score. Before they started going up last January, prices had been on a downward curve for four years.