a rally in global food prices paused in december as the costs of vegetable oils and sugar fell amid concerns over covid19 variants the united nations food and agriculture organization said thursday the faos food prices index which tracks the cost of a basket of basic foodstuffs declined 09 from the previous month to 1337 points halting four consecutive months of rises prices largely fell across the selections of food commodities that the faos index tracks although declines were most notable for vegetable oils and sugar while dairy prices were the only area to rise while december saw prices weaken global food commodities surged for most of the year the faos index rose over 28 in 2021 vegetable oil prices surged by almost 66 while grains rose over 27 both reaching alltime highs sugar prices rose almost 30 in the final month of the year vegetable oils fell by 33 as palm oil and sunflower oil prices weakened due to subdued import demand sugar prices weakened 31 hitting a fivemonth low due to concerns over the omicron variant of covid19 meat prices were little changed in december while dairy prices rose 18 as production of milk in western europe and oceania declined despite the pause in december food prices are likely to remain volatile in 2022 thanks to higher input costs and the growing impact of climate change the fao said while normally high prices are expected to give way to increased production the high cost of inputs ongoing global pandemic and ever more uncertain climatic conditions leave little room for optimism about a return to more stable market conditions even in 2022  said fao senior economist abdolreza abbassian write to will horner at williamhornerwsjcom