In this section, you may find new materials that have been published on the topic of ‘Food Price Volatility’, since the date of the event. We continually select major new publications and articles that add up to the policy points discussed in this briefing.

Africa: Food Prices Are Broadly Stable Amid Record Cereal Inventories
FAO, December 8, 2016

The FAO Food Price Index dipped slightly in November, marking a mild departure from its steady rise over the course of 2016. The Index declined 0.4 percent from October, averaging 171.3 points in November, as a sharp drop in sugar prices outweighed an increase in palm oil quotations. FAO’s Food Price Index, a trade-weighted index tracking international market prices for five major food commodity groups, is still 10.4 percent higher than in November 2015.The FAO Sugar Price Index fell 8.9 percent from October, reflecting reports of a higher-than-expected harvest in Brazil, the world’s largest sugar producer, and a weakening of the Brazilian real with respect to the U.S. dollar. The FAO Vegetable Oil Price Index rose 4.5 percent in the month, led by lower-than-anticipated production of palm oil in Southeast Asia as well as below-potential soybean crushing of in South America. Other commodities were more stable. The FAO Meat Price Index was unchanged from October. The FAO Dairy Price Index rose 1.9 percent, continuing a recent upward trend after a protracted slump. The FAO Cereal Price Index declined 0.6 percent, as global supplies are ample and strong harvest prospects in Argentina and Australia weighed on wheat quotations.

– Managing Food Price Volatility: Policy Options to Support Healthy Diets and Nutrition in the Context of Uncertainty
glopan.org, 08/04/2016
The world’s food systems face growing systemic challenges in providing healthy affordable diets for all. These challenges include long-term threats to food production including water scarcity, soil degradation, the environmental impacts of climate change and competition for productive land due to urban expansion. However, a major concern for policymakers today is protecting consumers and their ability to acquire nutritionally adequate diets in the face of current and projected increases in food prices and food price volatility.

  How volatile are African food prices?
IFPRI, 2013
Instability in the price of staple foods is an important source of risk in developing countries. This is particularly true in Africa south of the Sahara because of the low incomes of many African households. Poor urban households allocate a large share of their income to food, so food price volatility affects their purchasing power. Many poor rural households depend on agriculture for their livelihood, so they too are directly influenced by food price volatility.

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