The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Food Price Index rose 1.5% to 136.0 points in September, its highest level since November 2022 and 5.8% above a year earlier, from a revised 134.0 in August. Cereal, sugar and vegetable oil prices increased, while meat and dairy quotations fell. Sugar reached an 18-month high amid concerns about a severe El Niño weather pattern, and wheat futures reached a three-year peak early in the month as war-related disruption weakened Black Sea trade. Transportation disruptions, weather concerns and constrained shipping limited supplies and lifted crop-based commodity prices. Dairy prices slipped 0.1% from August, while meat prices fell 1.1% as major exporting countries had abundant supplies. FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero said disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and Black Sea, together with climate shocks, were putting pressure on energy, transport and food commodities, with sustained pressure potentially feeding through to consumer food prices, particularly in countries dependent on imported food and energy. FAO kept its 2026 global cereal production forecast nearly unchanged at 2.979 billion metric tons, 2.1% below the previous year's peak but still the second-largest harvest on record, while cutting its 2026/27 cereal trade forecast by 0.7% because of lower wheat and maize export expectations linked largely to constrained Black Sea shipping routes.