The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in it biannual Food Outlook report has projected that global milk output is expected to grow by 1.4% in 2017, led by a rapid expansion in India.
This is even as it states that global food commodity markets are well-balanced, buoyed by ample supplies of wheat and maize and rebounding production of oilseed products.
It however revealed that rising shipping costs and larger import volumes are set to lift the global food import bill to more than USD 1.3 trillion this year, a 10.6 percent increase from 2016.
The report released last Thursday, further states that the food import bills of least-developed countries, low-income food deficit countries and countries in sub-Saharan Africa are on course to rise even faster due to higher import volumes of meat, sugar, dairy and oilseed products.
Rising import bills are forecast for all food categories except for fish, for which growing domestic market demand in many developing countries is being increasingly met by robust growth in their local aquaculture sectors.
Global food commodity prices rose for the first time in three months in May, with the FAO Food Price Index – also released today – averaging 172.6 points during the month, 2.2 percent higher than in April and some 10 percent higher than May 2016.
FAO’s Food Price Index is a trade-weighted index tracking international market prices of five major food commodity groups: cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat and sugar. Rising prices were reported in May for all of those groups except sugar.
The Food Outlook offers fresh forecasts for the markets of major food commodities, all of which appear well-supplied on a global level even if there may be regional or national divergences.
International prices of wheat should remain stable, especially during the first half of the season, while near-record production of coarse grains will likely keep competition intense among the major exporters. Rice supplies are also forecast to remain ample, although reserves may decline as some exporters reduce their public stockpiles.
Worldwide oilseed production is expected to leap to an all-time high in 2016/17, due mostly to outstanding yield levels for soybean, allowing further replenishments of global stocks. First indications point to a well-supplied market also in 2017/18, further weighing on prices.
