The UN specialized agency, through a statement, commented on the biannual assessment of market supply and demand trends for the world’s main food products, including cereals, vegetable oils, sugar, meat, dairy products and fish.

It noted that global food trade is preparing for a resilient year 2021, even as international prices for food staples remain high amid supply and demand uncertainty.

Globally, trade in agricultural products, particularly less perishable foods, performed stronger than that of merchandise sectors in general.

This helped, the text says, to push FAO’s interim forecast for the global food import bill in 2021 to $ 1.72 trillion, a 12 percent increase from its previous peak of $ 1.53 trillion in 2020.

Estimates include global production of major food products to increase next year, except for sugar, which is forecast to decline for the third year in a row, indicating, the FAO noted, the need to reduce inventories.

For oilseeds, the market outlook appears tight and resumption of production growth is expected to be insufficient to meet demand.

Global supplies of wheat and rice are strong, the FAO said, estimating that coarse grain stocks will fall despite a record production forecast in 2021.

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