World Bank Food Price index increases 33 percent

Global food prices held near three-year highs in July and stocks were low, piling on pressure on the world's poor, the World Bank said on Monday, according to BBC.

The World Bank Food Price index increased 33 percent in July from a year-ago and stayed close to 2008 peak levels, with large rises in the prices for maize, or corn, and sugar.

The price of maize was up 84 percent in July from a year ago and sugar increased 62 percent.

The World Bank said the move into production for biofuels was also driving up the price of maize, noting that in the first four months of 2011, U.S. maize demand for ethanol production rose 8 percent from the same period last year.

Rice prices increased 11 percent in the last quarter after declining since February. Sugar prices increased 29 percent between May and July amid worries about Brazil's lower-than-expected sugarcane harvest.

"Given that sugar and vegetable oils together account for roughly 50 percent of the World Bank's food price index, volatility in these prices is likely to have unexpected effects on food prices in the months ahead," the World Bank said.