It's wedding season from Marketplace. I'm Nancy Marshall Ginsburg in Washington. First, global food

prices stabilized in May after a big jump in April. That's according to the latest data from the UN Food

and Agriculture Organization. It warned the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and disruptions to energy

and fertilizer markets could

still cause higher prices down the road. Marketplace of Nova Safo is here with more. Good Morning, Nova.

Hi, Nancy. So let's start with the good news. Food prices are stabilizing? Yeah, so this may report

is evidence of why we often say that food and energy prices are volatile.

A lot of factors can affect whether they go up or down.

As to whether this latest report from the UN is good news, it's probably more of a mixed bag.

Wheat and corn prices are still rising.

Some vegetable oil saw declines.

Meat prices were flat overall, dairy down a bit. Sugar prices up

dramatically, 7.5% in a month. Why you might ask? Because sugar cane can be used to make ethanol,

a biofuel, and as energy prices rise, it becomes more attractive to divert harvests to ethanol

production.

Okay, that makes sense.

But what's the overall takeaway from the report?

You know, well, I'd say the biggest takeaway is that we're not out of the woods.

The UN is still expecting declining wheat harvests, for example.

Global cereal reserves are healthy, so it'll offset some of that decline, but there are still supply concerns and prices are higher than they were a year ago, up 3%. Now, a separate report out today from the UN World Food Program found that as many as 45 million people around the world are already in danger of severe hunger this year because of the Iran war disruptions,

because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and the effect that's had in pushing up

energy prices and fertilizer prices.

...