FAO Food Price Index

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index increased for the third consecutive month in May, driven by higher prices for cereals and dairy products, which offset declines in sugar and vegetable oil prices.

Key Points

It 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.
It was introduced in 1996 as a public good to help in monitoring developments in the global agricultural commodity markets.
The only major modification made to it – until now – was in 2009, when its base period was updated to 2002-2004.