Global Food Price Index at 136.0 Points | Highest Since November 2022

The prices of bread, noodles, cooking oil, and sweets. The food prices we feel in household budgets are not unrelated to global prices for grains and oils. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows these global movements each month in a single number: the Food Price Index. Here we read the September figures released on October 2, 2026.

136.0 points in September

According to the FAO, the Food Price Index for September 2026 was 136.0 points. It was up 1.5% from August and 5.8% from the same month a year earlier, the highest level since November 2022. The index brings together international prices for five commodity groups: cereals, vegetable oils, dairy products, meat, and sugar. The average for 2014 to 2016 is set at 100.

Cereals, vegetable oils, and sugar rose

The September rise was led by three crop-derived groups. Cereals rose 5.1% from the previous month. Factors cited include logistics constraints in the Black Sea region and dry conditions in North America for wheat, and tighter supply and demand in the United States for maize. Sugar rose 6.1%, reflecting expectations that global supply will tighten in the 2026/27 season. Vegetable oils also rose 0.9%, with palm oil increasing for the fourth consecutive month.

Meanwhile, meat fell 1.1%, and dairy products were almost flat. Dairy products are 19.1% lower than the same month a year earlier.

FAO Food Price Index for September 2026
・Overall: 136.0 (+1.5% month on month / +5.8% year on year)
・Cereals: 122.8 (+5.1%)
・Vegetable oils: 198.6 (+0.9%)
・Sugar: 114.0 (+6.1%)
・Meat: 127.9 (−1.1%)
・Dairy products: 119.1 (−0.1%)
※2014–2016 average = 100

Distance from store prices

Movements in international prices do not appear directly on store shelves as they are. Exchange rates, logistics costs, processing, and labor costs all come in between, and there is also a time lag. Even so, the upward trend in grain and sugar prices offers one clue when thinking about the dining table a little further ahead.

For the long-term outlook for sugar, see Global sugar to reach 200 million tons in 2034 and for food expenses from the household perspective, see The dining table with an Engel’s coefficient of 28.6% introduced here.

Reference: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), FAO Food Price Index (released October 2, 2026)

—The Value Village Editorial Team