UN Radio reported April 2nd that the latest grain price index issued by FAO on the same day indicated that grain price index was constantly dropping in March, mainly because of the drastic drop of sugar price index. Since April 2014, global grain price index has been on the decline.

Latest grain price index indicates that grain price index dropped by 1.5% according to previous month and dropped by 18.7% according to the same period of last year. Except dairy, the prices of vegetable oil, grains and meat all dropped according to previous month.

FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian pointed out that the reason for grain price drop was good prospect of crops; as exchange rate of Brazilian currency to USD kept going low, the sugar producers in the country exported a lot of sugar.

Latest grain price index indicates that grain price index dropped by 1.5% according to previous month and dropped by 18.7% according to the same period of last year. The declining trend of this year was mainly due to the increase of export supply and inventory, especially wheat and corn. Vegetable oil price index dropped by nearly 3.1%, a new low since 2009 September; meat price index dropped by 1%; dairy products price index has been rising continuously for the second month, a 1.7% rise than previous month.

FAO says that the estimated 2014 grain output has been heightened to 2.544 billion ton, mainly because EU’s corn harvest was better than estimated; if this estimated figure is confirmed, 2014 global grain output will be 1% higher than the record-breaking level in 2013. Its estimated grain inventory at the end of 2015 is also higher than reported level in previous month; the increase is mainly reflected by the rise of Chinese wheat and corn inventory.