World food prices rise 1 pct in April

World food prices rose about 1 percent in April, pushed by another big jump in dairy prices, while world rice prices fell slightly and other leading indicators were mostly flat, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said on Thursday.

The FAO World Food Price Index gained 2 points in April to close at an average of 215.5 points. It is the highest level for the index since last September, but still barely within a narrow 5-point band it has traded in since November.

Though dairy prices are a small part of the index, the increase over the last two months has been remarkable, driven by a slowdown in production from New Zealand due to dry weather there.

Worldwide, dairy prices jumped 14.9 percent in April, following a 10.4-percent increase in March. The FAO said the dairy prices would likely stabilize in May, as production from other parts of the world started to fill the gaps created by New Zealand's production shortfalls.

Prices of cereals and grains fell 4.1 percent in April, but remained 5 percent above levels a year ago. The April declines mostly stemmed from a fall in corn prices, while wheat prices remained stable.

Rice prices declined slightly on the back of lower imports from India and Japan, though the FAO noted that prices for some types of specialty rice increased last month.

Prices for fats and oils decreased 1.5 percent in April, prices of meats remained mostly unchanged for the sixth consecutive month, and sugar prices fell 3.6 percent.

The FAO's World Food Price Index is calculated monthly based on average monthly prices in the five main food commodity groups in 55 key markets worldwide, weighted for the export shares for each group.