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Cambodia: Cost of WFP basic food basket up 1.1% in February
With the softening of cost for fuel and farm inputs, the food prices in the Kingdom of Cambodia are showing an easing trend – more in the urban areas than the rural parts of the country.
In February this year, the cost of the WFP basic food basket (BFB) registered a slight increase of 1.1 percent to $26.2 (107,610 riels per person per month) compared with January. While the cost of BFB in rural areas was $25.5, showing an increase of 1.4 percent, in urban areas, it was $26.6, up just 0.4 percent compared to last month.
However, the cost of the basic food basket was up 6.6 percent in February compared with the same month of the previous year, according to the Market & Seasonal Monitoring Update for February 2023 for Cambodia, posted on Monday.
Food commodities in the basket showed only marginal (±< 5 percent month-on-month) price changes in February. While the price of snakehead fish increased by 3.1 percent, pork and vegetable oils continued on a downward trend becoming cheaper by 2.3 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, in the second month of the year.
But the cost of some food commodities, such as snakehead fish, duck eggs, morning glory and sweet potatoes, continued to rule much higher. They continued to register substantial long-term price increases year-on-year like snakehead fish became expensive by 18.8 percent, duck eggs costlier by 12.9 percent, morning glory up 27.2 percent and sweet potatoes rose 32.6 percent.
However, the prices of vegetable oils and pork were cheaper by 4.3 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively, compared with the same month of the previous year.
The BFB, adopted from WFP’s Minimum Expenditure Basket (MEB) study in Cambodia, comprises food items including mixed rice, snakehead fish, pork, duck egg, vegetable oil, sweet potato and morning glory.
The cost of a WFP basic food basket is calculated to help understand the effects of monthly changes in food commodity prices on the cost of a healthy diet, which meets the minimum energy requirement of 1,937 kilocalories per person per day, in the Kingdom.
According to the update, BFB was most expensive in the Dang Tong market of Koh Kong province at about $30.8 (126,314 riels per person per month) and the least expensive in the Stoung market of Kampong Thom province at about $22.6 (92,592 riels per person per month. While the cost of BFB in the Dang Tong market was 17.4 percent more than the national average, it was 14 percent less in the Stoung market.
Also, 5 percent and higher price deviations from the national average were mostly recorded in urban markets compared with rural markets, it says. The Market & Seasonal Monitoring Update for February 2023 shows that the average retail prices of the key food items were higher in urban areas than in rural areas, except for mixed rice and duck egg.
But for pork, morning glory and sweet potatoes, the average retail prices of key food commodities declined by around 5 percent compared with January 2023 in both rural and urban areas. While sweet potatoes became costlier by 8.8 percent in rural areas, it became cheaper by 2.2 percent in urban parts of the country.
The update, prepared by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in partnership with the Agricultural Marketing Office (AMO) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) every month, focuses on the ‘effects of the global food and fuel crisis on food prices and market functionality’ in Cambodia.
To prepare the update, data on the retail and wholesale prices of key food commodities as well as market functionality, including supply and demand issues, are collected from 56 urban and rural markets across the country. Around 1,000 traders and market chiefs are called every two weeks for it.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501260307/cost-of-wfp-basic-food-basket-up-1-1-in-february/