Rome: The food prices increased globally in July due to rising international prices of meat and vegetable oils, according to a report by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Friday.

According to Anadolu Agency, FAO's food price index rose 1.6% month-on-month to 130.1 points in July. The vegetable oil price index saw a significant rise of 7.1% on a monthly basis, reaching a three-year high of 166.8 points. This increase was driven by the prices of palm, soybean, and sunflower oils. Palm oil prices surged due to strong global demand and increased competitiveness, while sunflower oil prices rose owing to shrinking export supplies in the Black Sea Region. In contrast, rapeseed oil prices fell due to a lack of new crop supply in Europe.

The report highlighted that the meat price index also rose by 1.2% in July, reaching a new record high of 127.3 points. This was largely due to strong import demand from China and the United States, which led to higher beef and mutton prices.

Despite these increases, the dairy price index edged down slightly by 0.1% from June to 155.3 points, marking the first decline since April 2024. The report noted that prices for butter and milk powders decreased due to abundant export supplies and subdued import demand, particularly from Asia. However, international cheese prices continued to rise, fueled by strong demand in Asian and Near East markets and tighter export availability in the European Union.

Additionally, the cereal price index fell by 0.8% month-over-month to 106.5 points, while the sugar price index decreased by 0.2% to 103.3 points. Despite the monthly increase, the overall food price index remained 18.8% below its peak in March 2022 but was still 7.6% higher than in July 2024.