War and weather push world food prices to three-year high — FAO

PARIS - World food prices rose in July to their highest in more than three years as adverse weather and war escalation in the Gulf and Black Sea supported crop markets, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in a basket of internationally traded food commodities, averaged 131.1 points in July, up from 130.3 in June and the highest reading since January 2023.

A 3.4% month-on-month rise in the FAO's Cereal Price Index drove the trend, fuelled in turn by a 5.8% jump in wheat prices, the agency said.

-Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by Tomasz Janowski/Reuters