Global food prices are not expected to fall much further after dipping to their lowest level in three years in September, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday, trimming its estimate for 2013/14 world cereals production.
The decline in prices last month was driven by a sharp fall in the cost of grains, while dairy, meat and sugar prices all rose, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.
Food prices surged during the summer of 2012 due to a major drought in the United States but prospects for a rebound in cereal supplies to record levels have reversed the price trend this year.
The FAO's index measuring monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 199.1 points in September, down about 1 percent from 201.4 points in August.
The index has fallen for five consecutive months and has reached its lowest level since September 2010.
FAO is due to hold a second ministerial meeting to discuss food price volatility at its Rome headquarters on October 7, with 40 ministers expected to attend.
The agency said it had slightly trimmed its forecast for world cereal output in 2013/14 to 2.489 billion tons, 3 million tons lower than a previous estimate, but still 8 percent higher than production in 2012.
FAO's price index hit a record peak of 237.9 points in February 2011, when high food prices helped drive the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.
In the summer of 2012 the index began surging to levels close to another peak seen in 2008, in which year there were riots, some deadly, in several poor countries.