Prices of corn, wheat and other grains can climb much higher and current weather patterns are of concern, the U.N. food agency said Wednesday after announcing a record high for its food price index in December. The Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) food price index, which measures monthly price changes for a food basket composed of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 215 points last month, up from 206 points in November, Reuters reported. That level, fueled by soaring sugar prices and strength in cereals and oilseeds, was the highest since records began in 1990, and topped the high of 213.5 in June 2008, during a food crisis which sparked riots in some countries. The F.A.O.'s economist Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters that the unpredictability of current weather activity is a concern. "There is still room for prices to go up much higher, if for example the dry conditions in Argentina tend to become a drought, and if we start having problems with winterkill in the northern hemisphere for the wheat crops," he said. Winterkill occurs when cold attacks plants seeded, generally in the autumn, for harvesting the following year. Abbassian added that despite high prices, many factors that triggered sometimes deadly food riots in 2008, such as weak output in poor countries and a sudden surge in crude oil prices, were not currently present, reducing the risk of more turmoil.
