Food commodity prices to ease, says report

Prices of major food commodities are expected to ease in the coming decade after a surge in the past year, helped by higher farm productivity and slowing demand from China, the UN food agency and the OECD said.

But emissions from agriculture are projected to climb, mostly from livestock production, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a report.

Agricultural commodity prices have surged since last year due to booming Chinese imports and tightening crop inventories.

But prices of most main agricultural commodities should fall slightly in real terms in the decade ahead, reverting to a long-term trend of improving production meeting rising demand from a growing world population.