The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has unveiled a new tool to monitor the prices of staple food commodities in 55 developing countries. The National Basic Food Prices Data and Analysis Tool is an interactive database that allows users to monitor retail and wholesale food prices both in local currencies and in dollars. It also allows for price comparisons between domestic and international markets, between different markets in the same country, as well as between countries. The U.N. agency said that the tool was developed as part of its response to high food prices.
Liliana Balbi, senior economist within the agency, said: "The easy-to-use database will be an invaluable source of information for policy and decision-makers in agricultural production and trade, development and also humanitarian work."
The tool showed that although prices of agricultural commodities have fallen internationally, food prices in developing countries have not fallen so fast or at all.
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