Global Food Market: FAO Food Price Index and World Food Import Bill

The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) tracks monthly changes in international prices of a basket of traded food commodities, grouped into cereals, vegetable oils, meat, dairy and sugar [1]. It is the most widely used benchmark of world food commodity prices.

In August 2026 the FFPI averaged 133.3 points, up 2.5 points (1.9 percent) from its revised July level [1]. Every commodity group rose in the month [1]. The index was 3.3 points (2.5 percent) higher than a year earlier but 26.9 points (16.8 percent) below the March 2022 peak [1]. That puts the peak at about 160.2 points (FREEE.REPORT calculation).

• Cereals: 116.3 points in August 2026, up 2.2 percent from July and the highest since May 2024. World wheat prices were 15.0 percent above their level a year earlier [1].
• Vegetable oils: 196.9 points, up 0.6 percent, the third monthly rise in a row and the highest since June 2022 [1].
• Meat: 127.9 points, up 1.0 percent and close to its level a year earlier [1].
• Dairy: 119.2 points, up 2.3 percent, its first rise in four months but 21.7 percent below a year earlier [1].
• Sugar: 106.4 points, up 11.9 percent, the highest since June 2025, on supply worries for the 2026/27 season [1].

FAO reported that the FFPI averaged 4.3 percent higher across 2025 than in 2024 [2]. The August 2026 reading of 133.3 points compares with about 130.0 points in August 2025, based on FAO's stated year-on-year change of 3.3 points (FREEE.REPORT calculation) [1].

FAO's Food Outlook puts the global food import bill for 2025 at a record USD 2.22 trillion, 7.9 percent higher than in 2024 [3]. The rise came even though import costs for cereals, sugar and oilseeds fell [3]. It was driven by higher prices for higher-value products such as coffee, cocoa, spices, animal products, fish, fruit and vegetables, which high-income countries import most [3].

The June 2025 Food Outlook had estimated the 2024 import bill at nearly USD 2.1 trillion, up 3.6 percent from 2023 [4]. In 2022 FAO had forecast a record of USD 1.94 trillion [5].

FAO links the August 2026 cereal price rise to strong demand, weather risks to crops in key producing regions, and uncertainty over Black Sea export flows [1]. Maize prices also got support from ethanol and feed demand and from concerns over input supplies after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz [1]. Vegetable oil prices rose on strong palm oil import demand and concerns about El Nino effects in Southeast Asia [1]. Sugar prices jumped on hot, dry weather in the European Union, lower output in Brazil's Center-South and India's announcement of duty-free raw sugar imports [1].

Index values come from FAO's FFPI page for the August 2026 release [1] and FAO's January 2026 news release on the full-year 2025 average [2]. The FFPI is a real-time index with base 2014-2016 = 100. FAO notes that recent Meat Price Index values mix projected and observed prices and can be revised [1].

The March 2022 peak (about 160.2 points) and the August 2025 value (about 130.0 points) are FREEE.REPORT calculations: 133.3 plus 26.9 points, and 133.3 minus 3.3 points, using FAO's stated differences [1]. Food import bill figures are in current USD and come from different Food Outlook editions [3][4][5]. Earlier-year figures were estimates or forecasts at the time of publication and may have been revised.