World food prices dip in February, cereal outlook up -U.N.

World food prices slipped in February, ending four months of successive increases, driven by falls in prices for vegetable oils, meat and grains, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) food price index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 180.5 points last month, down 1.0% on January.

FAO also slightly upped its forecast for cereal production, predicting a crop totalling some 2.719 billion tonnes in 2019, up from a previous forecast of 2.715 billion and some 2.3% higher than the 2018 crop.