Common world cereal costs rose in Might to a 19-month excessive as a result of price pressures in gasoline and fertiliser linked to the Strait of Hormuz blockade.
In its month-to-month report monitoring 5 key commodities, the Meals and Agriculture Group of the United Nations (FAO) warned of the dangers to international meals costs from a possible discount in fertiliser use.
Round 40% of the world’s fertiliser provide comes from the Center East, the place the key transport route via the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked because the US-Israel battle with Iran started in late February.
Whereas the general FAO meals index monitoring the costs of cereals, meat, dairy, oils and sugar dipped 0.2% in Might from a month earlier, it was 2.9% increased than in Might 2025. At 130.8 final month, the studying was the very best because the 131.4 common reached in January 2023.
In the meantime, the sub-gauge for cereals climbed 2.6% month-on-month and was up 5% from a yr earlier “reflecting increased costs throughout all main cereals amid increased gasoline and fertiliser prices globally and weather-related pressures”, the FAO mentioned.
The cereals index averaged 114.3 final month, a degree not seen because the 114.4 lead to October 2024, the FAO’s historic data present.
Boubaker Ben-Belhassen, the director of the FAO’s Markets and Commerce division, mentioned at the moment (5 June): “Whereas international meals commodity markets have remained broadly resilient, rising cereal costs underscore vulnerability to weather-related dangers and disruptions in vitality and enter markets.
“Continued uncertainty affecting key commerce routes, together with the Strait of Hormuz, may cut back fertiliser use and place extra stress on meals costs, highlighting the necessity for coordinated worldwide motion.”
Throughout the parts of the cereals index, international wheat costs rose 3.4% on month in Might and have been up 7.8% from the identical month final yr.
Maize costs elevated 1.9% and three.9%, respectively.
The FAO’s All-Rice Worth Index climbed 2.7% from April as “climate considerations and better crude oil and derived product costs underpinned quotations in some main Asian exporting nations”, the UN physique mentioned.
For meat, that index edged up 0.1% to 130.5, its highest degree within the FAO’s readings going again to 1990.
“World bovine meat costs rose on the again of sturdy import demand, notably from China and the US of America, whereas pig meat costs declined, primarily as a result of decrease costs within the European Union amid plentiful provides and subdued import demand,” the FAO mentioned.
The dairy index dipped 0.5% month-on-month led by butter costs.
Sugar costs rose 7.5% from a month earlier, a rise the FAO mentioned was as a result of “considerations that El Niño circumstances may adversely have an effect on manufacturing in India and Thailand within the yr forward”.
