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Agrifood: Low commodity prices hurt agriculture while food industry's profits barely increase

  • Agricultural commodities to plateau at best in 2016 after a strong decline of -15% in 2015
  • Ongoing fierce price competition challenging firms' profitability with operating profit increasing by only +1.5% in 2015
  • Series of deregulation policies to support trade: Production quotas lifted by EU; export tax eliminated in Argentina; Brazil and Canada meat exporters gained access to markets
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sector inflation risks
sector inflation risks

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Food prices have stopped plunging in 2016 with a contained -1.5% drawback of the FAO Food index. This is the lowest decrease in five consecutive years.

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