Source: MEATINGPLACE, 9//9/16
 
International meat prices inched up in August as higher pork, sheep and poultry prices offset weakness in beef, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.

Still, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) meat price index, at 162.2 points, was down 5 percent from a year ago.
A recovery in beef production in the United States reduced the need for external supplies and contributed to international prices falling back, FAO said. Limited supplies of pork in the European Union supported pork prices, while firm international demand, especially from Asia, underpinned poultry meat prices.

Overall, the FAO food price index hit a 15-month high in August, led by dairy oils and sugar. Seasonal harvest pressure weighed on prices for cereals including wheat and corn.

The food price index dipped in July but has been trending higher since hitting a seven-year low in January.

"We seem to have reached the bottom for food prices in general some months back, and I think what we are seeing goes some way to confirm that," FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters. 

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