The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
reported the monthly food price index for July rose 6 percent in large part to
weather-related issues.
The FAO reported lingering drought in the
United States increased maize prices by 23 percent in July. The U.S. drought
was the worst on record since the 1950s as temperatures reached record levels
for most of the country.
Sugar prices increased by 12 percent because
of unseasonable rains in Brazil, the largest sugar exporter, and grain prices
rose 19 percent because of low production expectations from Russia.
Food prices had declined for the previous
three months, the FAO said. For July, the monthly food price index was 6
percent higher than for June.
Kelly Wiesbrock, a manager at hedge fund
Harvest Capital Strategies, said expectations for corn were exceptionally high
for 2012.
"Then the month of June hit and into
July, and it's just been a train wreck," she told Bloomberg News.
Record prices had pushed more than 40 million
people in North Africa and the Middle East into extreme poverty.
The United Nations estimates more than 15
million people are facing food shortages and malnutrition due to a lingering
drought. More than 200,000 children died of malnutrition last year and more
than 1 million children are threatened.
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