UN / FOOD PRICE INDEX

The latest FAO Food Price Index says that prices surged to a new historic peak in January for the seventh consecutive month. The FAO Price Index is a commodity basket that regularly tracks monthly changes in global food prices. FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:14
• Production Date: 3 February 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS ASSISTANCE MISSION IN SUDAN - UNMIS; FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION - FAO; WORLD BANK
• Subject Topical: ECONOMIC CONDITIONS; NUTRITION
• Geographic Subject: UNITED NATIONS STABILIZATION MISSION IN HAITI - MINUSTAH
• MAMS Id: U110203a

Description

STORY: UN / FOOD PRICE INDEX
TRT: 1.14
SOURCE: FAO / MINUSTAH / UNMIS / WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: NATS

DATELINE: FILE

Shotlist

FILE - MINUSTAH - 17 APRIL 2008, PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI

1. Med shot, people standing in line waiting for food
2. Tracking shot, woman receiving food rations
3. Med shot, food being distributed

FILE - UNMIS - MARCH 2009, BORE, PIBOR AND AKOBO, JONGLEI STATE, SOUTHERN SUDAN

4. Med shot, crowd of women and children waiting for food
5. Wide shot, unloading WFP truck
6. Med shot, unloading bags of food from truck
7. Tracking shot, a mother carrying food supply

FILE - FAO - 25, 31 MAY 2010, NIGER

8. Med shot, farmer walking among oxen
9. Med shot, woman pounding grain
10. Wide shot, people waiting outside a cereal bank
11. Wide shot, people picking up sacks of g rain
12. Med shot, Man carrying sack of seeds

FILE - WORLD BANK - FEBRUARY 2009, WEGALA, SRI LANKA

13. Various shots, agricultural fields and irrigation
14. Zoom in, woman in market bagging rice

FILE - FAO - MAY 2008, CHINA

15. Med shot, shopper and teller in supermarket

Storyline

World food prices surged to a new historic peak in January, for the seventh consecutive month, according to the updated FAO Food Price Index, a commodity basket that regularly tracks monthly changes in global food prices.

The Index averaged 231 points in January and was up 3.4 percent from December 2010. This is the highest level (both in real and nominal terms) since FAO started measuring food prices in 1990. Prices of all monitored commodity groups registered strong gains in January, except for meat, which remained unchanged.

FAO emphasized that the Food Price Index has been revised, largely reflecting adjustments to its meat price index. The revision, which is retroactive, has produced new figures for all the indices but the overall trends measured since 1990 remain unchanged.

The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 245 points in January, up 3 percent from December and the highest since July 2008, but still 11 percent below its peak in April 2008. The increase in January mostly reflected continuing increases in international prices of wheat and maize, amid tightening supplies, while rice prices fell slightly, as the timing coincides with the harvesting of main crops in major exporting countries.