The Food and Agriculture Organization's food price index, which measures monthly changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar, averaged 118.5 points last month versus a slightly revised 116.1 in February.
The February figure was previously given as 116.0.
Cereal prices bucked the trend, down by 1.7 per cent and for wheat by 2.4 per cent.
But the vegetable oils index went up by eight per cent.
Dairy prices rose by 3.9 per cent and meats by 2.3 per cent.
