In West Africa, supplies continued to decline during the lean season in August. Demand has remained seasonally high and above average due to increased replenishment of stocks, although humanitarian assistance has reduced pressure in targeted areas. The prices of staple foods have remained above the five-year average, particularly in Nigeria. Conflict-related market disruptions have been reported in parts of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon. Cross-border trade has remained below average due to persistent COVID-19 restrictions, harassment along corridors, transportation costs, government restrictions and insecurity-related disruption (page 3).

In East Africa, the prices of staple foods have followed seasonal but divergent trends. Prices have fallen in most markets in South Sudan due to the start of the green belt harvest and continued supply of the crop from May to August in Tanzania and Uganda. Prices remained stable both in Kenya as supplies from the July to September harvest started to enter markets and in Somalia due to a below average harvest. Prices have increased seasonally in Burundi and Ethiopia as supplies tightened, but price trends have varied across Sudan. Livestock prices declined seasonally in most markets at the end of the export season from July to August. Chronic poor macroeconomic conditions have supported high prices in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi and Somalia (page 4).

In South Africa, markets and the milling sub-sector are well supplied, with maize showing above-average production in the 2020/21 production year, except in Madagascar, where supply was below average. Informal intra-regional trade is below average due to domestic availability and limited import demand. Prices started to increase seasonally in August, trends that will persist during the lean season. Prices are lowest in Malawi and South Africa. South Africa continued to export yellow maize to international markets while almost half of white maize exports were regional. The region benefited from firm international commodity prices, supporting export earnings (page 5).

In central America, the markets were well supplied and functioning normally. Maize prices have remained stable or have increased seasonally. The prices of local beans and imported rice were also stable. In Haiti, local prices of maize and black beans have fallen following the spring harvests. Prices of imported rice remained stable while other imported commodities continued to experience depreciation-induced price increases. Markets were disrupted following the earthquake in the Sud department (Page 6).

In Central Asia, wheat prices remained stable in August but remained well above the five-year average. Wheat prices in Kazakhstan were similar to 2020 levels, while prices were high compared to 2020 in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Yemen, staple food prices remained well above average due to the protracted conflict and the continued depreciation of the YER. Food and fuel price trends differed considerably between areas controlled by the internationally recognized government (IRG) and authorities based in Sana’a (SBA) (page 7).

International staple food markets are well supplied. Rice, corn and soybean prices declined on average in August, while wheat prices showed mixed trends (Figure 2). Global crude oil prices remained stable relative to market rebalancing expectations in the second half of 2021, while global fertilizer prices were generally stable in August (page 2).