LONDON (MarketWatch) — Global food prices reached a record in December, above a previous high set in 2008, according to the monthly Food Price Index published Wednesday by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
The FAO’s food price index, which monitors the monthly change in international prices of a basket of commodities including meat, dairy, cereals, oils and sugar, rose for the sixth month in a row to 214.7, a record for data going as far back as 1990. 
A combine harvester working in a wheat field.
That surge in food prices was aggravated by a rise in other commodities such as oil but the price spike was short-lived, with prices pulling back by the following season as the world economy tumbled and farmers increased grain plantings on a vast scale.
The FAO’s sugar index rose 6.7% on the month and also hit a record high in December of 398.4, according to the data going back to 1990. The index last hit a record high in January 2010.
Sugar prices have climbed to around 30-year highs due to strong demand fand low inventories around the world.
The FAO’s oils price index also jumped, rising 8.1% to 263 in December from 243.3 in November, while the cereals price index climbed 6.4% to 237.6 from 223.3.
Month-on-month increases in the FAO’s price indexes for meat and dairy were more muted — 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively. Still, the meat price index hit a record high of 142.2 in December 2010.
