Rising Commodity Prices
Since 2000, prices for agricultural raw material have increased dramatically on
the global market, with unprecedented rises occurring between 2006-2008. There
are various reasons for this. They include extreme weather conditions which
have
given rise to droughts and floods and thereby adversely affected supplies;
increased demand for food and feed (e.g. in rapidly growing economies such as
China
and India) and for biofuels; and a fall in global stocks.
Increased supplies as a result of record harvests combined with lower global
trade levels due to weakened economies during 2008-2009, leading to a fall in
many
agricultural raw materials prices. However, raw materials prices still remain
higher than pre-2007 levels.
More Information
Last reviewed: 23 Dec 2009