Sao Paulo, Nov. 22 - High commodity prices have food-importing nations paying 37% more for food in September than they did last year, according to a U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization study, business daily Valor Economic reported from Geneva Thursday.
The FAO report was presented to the agricultural committee at the World Trade Organization this week.
"There is a rising worry about inflation caused by food prices," the FAO report said, according to Valor.
The report wasn't available on the WTO or FAO Web sites Thursday.
FAO also warned that high freight costs, rising by 400% from food-exporting nations like the U.S. to ports in Egypt and Europe, could reduce food exports from some nations, Valor said.
Importer countries will likely spend as much as $745 billion on basic food commodities in 2007, up 21% from 2006, according to Valor's report.
Sugar is the only main commodity with prices that have fallen in the last year, despite sugarcane used to produce record gallons of ethanol in Brazil. High sugar stocks in India have sugar prices trading under 10 cents per pound for the March contract on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange.
The exchange will be closed Thursday and Friday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.