The FAO Food Price Index, which monitors monthly price changes for a basket of commodities, averaged 231 points in January -- up 3.4 percent from December and its highest level since FAO started measuring food prices in 1990.
The rises were particularly high for dairy products -- up 6.2 percent from December -- and oils and fats rose 5.6 percent from the previous month, while cereals went up 3.0 percent because of lower global supply of wheat and maize.
"The only encouraging factor so far stems from a number of countries where -- due to good harvests -- domestic prices of some of the food staples remain low compared to world prices," he added. [color:4764=#366388 !important][color:4764=#366388 !important]FAO</FONT></FONT> data released on Thursday showed the Food Price Index hit 200 points in 2008 at the height of the 2007/2008 food crisis. It breached that level for the first time in October 2010 with 205 points and has risen further since then.