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Highlights from AMIS "Food Market Outlook" event, plus latest price and crop reports
The Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) organized a special event "Food Market Outlook - An AMIS Perspective for 2015/16" at Expo Milan on Monday, 19 October 2015. Leading experts from AMIS-participating countries presented the outlook for wheat, maize, rice and soybean markets and addressed questions from a live and virtual audience on topics including:
July AMIS Market Monitor: Crop Conditions, Policy Developments, Prices and More
Conditions are favorable for wheat, maize and soybeans in the northern hemisphere according to this month's AMIS Market Monitor, while conditions for rice are mixed depending on the country.
The AMIS Market Monitor provides a synopsis of major developments in international commodity markets, focusing on wheat, maize, rice and soybeans. It represents the collective assessment of the ten international organizations that form the AMIS Secretariat concerning the international market situation and outlook.
FAO Sees Food Prices Fall for Second Consecutive Month
The FAO Food Price Index for May was released yesterday and is down 2.5 points from April, and nearly 7 points from May 2013. This is the second decline in a row, following the ten-month high reached in March. The decline is driven mostly by lower dairy, cereals, and vegetable oils prices.
Maize Bumper Crop Triggers Reassessment of Ethiopia’s Cereal Export Ban
Eight years ago, the Government of Ethiopia placed an export ban on maize and other major cereal crops. At the time, Ethiopia’s grain prices were three times higher than those on international markets. The government saw the price hikes as a symptom of trade and not high inflation rates, among other factors. But in 2013, higher-than-average Kiremt rains spurred projections of a bumper maize crop, which triggered the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) to consider advising the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to lift the export ban for the 2014 marketing season.
Food Prices Rise Sharply in March
Food prices spiked in March, according to the latest FAO Food Price Index, released this week. The Index rose 4.8 points from February and is at its highest level since May 2013. The increase is due largely to poor weather and continuing unrest in the Black Sea region. Cereal and sugar prices gained the most this month.