The World Bank says international food prices fell by 6 percent over a four-month stretch and are the lowest in four years. Lower wheat prices drove the decline, says the bank’s Food Price Watch. Wheat was down by 19 percent and corn down by 21 percent from April-August. “Prospects for next year’s harvests and food stocks are strong,” said the bank. It said domestic food prices were mostly stable, except in central America and western Africa “the latter associated with the Ebola virus disease.”
In addition, the World Bank launched the Food Price Crisis Observatory, “an interactive platform that makes critical knowledge accessible to all at a moment’s notice and adds more evidence to a growing global body of work on monitoring food price crises.”