World food prices dip to 4-year low in Sept

[ROME] World food prices fell to their lowest since Aug 2010 in September as prices of all major food groups except meat dropped, led by a sharp decline in dairy and sugar prices, the UN's food agency said on Thursday.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) price index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 191.5 points in September, down 5.2 points or 2.6 per cent from August.

The figure was 12.2 points or 6 per cent below Sept 2013.

FAO raised its forecast for global cereal production for 2014 to 2.523 billion tonnes, 65 million tonnes higher than its May forecast.

The agency also raised its world wheat output forecast to 718.5 million tonnes, a new record, versus 716.5 million tonnes previously, and predicted world cereals stocks at the end of the 2015 season would be 627.5 million tonnes, versus 616.0 million tonnes in its previous forecast.-Reuters