The war in Ukraine caused the UN’s cereal price index to rise by more than a third and its vegetable price index rise by more than half in the year to March 2022, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Photo credit: Diana Vyshniakova/Unsplash

The war in Ukraine caused the UN’s cereal price index to rise by more than a third and its vegetable price index rise by more than half in the year to March 2022, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Photo credit: Diana Vyshniakova/Unsplash

The worldwide cost of food skyrocketed to record levels in March, largely due to the war in Ukraine.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s food price index climbed by 12.6% between February 2022 and March 2022, and by 33.6% between March 2021 and March 2022.

“The latest increase reflects new all-time highs for vegetable oils, cereals and meat sub-indices, while those of sugar and dairy products also rose significantly,” the agency .

Ukraine and Russia are major global suppliers of vegetable oils and cereals, particularly to developing countries.

Cereal prices in March 2022 jumped by 17.1% compared to the previous month and by 37.3% compared to the previous year. The surge was “largely driven by conflict-related export disruptions from Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, the Russian Federation,” the FAO reported.

March 2022 vegetable oil prices gained 23.2% over the previous month and 56% over the previous year. The FAO stated: “The sharp rise of the index was driven by higher sunflower, palm, soy and rapeseed oil prices. International sunflowerseed oil quotations increased substantially in March, fuelled by reduced export supplies amid the ongoing conflict in the Black Sea region.”

The UN food agency explained that its index “is a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities. It consists of the average of five commodity group price indices weighted by the average export shares of each of the groups over 2014-2016.”

In March 2022, sugar prices showed a 6.7% monthly gain and 22.6% annual gain, while meat prices posted a 4.8% monthly increase and 19% annual increase, and dairy prices recorded a 2.6% monthly rise and 23.6% annual rise.