Food prices set to decline but market risks to rise: OECD and FAO

Tokyo

A VARIETY of factors, including lower oil prices, should lead to a gradual decline in food prices (allowing for inflation) over the coming decade, a joint report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says.

But while setting out this overall benign scenario for food prices, the report also warns that the world's increasing dependence upon a relatively small group of global suppliers of key commodities could "increase market risks".