FAO: Global Food Price Index up 6 percent

The rise has fanned fresh fears of a repeat of the 2007-2008 food crisis which hurt the world's poorest countries the the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation said. Rains in Brazil and drought in the US and Russia caused  prices to rise and a FAO spokesman said he feared a repeat of the 2007and 2008 food price rise which affected poorer countries.

Food prices jumped 6% in July from June after falling three months in a row.Cereal prices surged 17%, while sugar leapt 12% to new highs in July from the previous month after rains hampered sugarcane harvesting in Brazil, the world's largest producer.Delayed monsoons in India and poor rains in Australia also contributed to higher prices.

Cereal prices surged 17%, while sugar leapt 12% to new highs in July from the previous month after rains hampered sugarcane harvesting in Brazil, the world's largest producer. International wheat quotations also surged 19 percent amid worsened production prospects in the Russian Federation and expectations of firm demand for wheat as feed because of tight maize supplies.

Oxfam said that since the beginning of the year, rising food prices and drought had caused a food crisis in the Sahel sub-region of west and central Africa, affecting more than 18 million people over an area of land as wide as the US.

Morocco recently announced a tender for or 300,000 tons of European  tons of European wheat due to a loss of  a susbtantial part of this years crop due to climactic conditions resulting in a drought and cold snap.