PARIS—A surge in the cost of most food commodities last year, as the disruption caused by Ukraine’s conflict raised concerns of shortages, sent the U.N. food agency’s average price index to the highest level on record.
The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) food price index, which tracks international prices of the most globally traded food commodities, averaged 143.7 points in 2022, up 14.3 percent from 2021, and the highest since records started in 1990, the agency said on Friday.
The index had already gained 28 percent in 2021 from the previous year as the world economy recovered from the impact of the pandemic….