Cereals and oils stoke food inflation fears

摘要

The UN Food & Agriculture Organisation's food price index has reached record highs - in what it calls 'danger territory'. Key snack ingredients - cereals and cooking oils - are at the forefront of this movement. Are we really into a new era of permanently high, perhaps ever-rising raw material costs? Or are the markets only listening to the negative news? John Buckley reports. Although its basket of commodity prices, including cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat & sugar prices has been rising for seven months, the FAO says the situation is not yet as bad yet as in 2008, partly because the main staple, wheat, is still below record highs reached then - though it acknowledges prices "could go much higher."