The AP Food Price and Policy Monitor is a monthly report tasked to monitor food prices in local markets and provide readers with up to date food/agricultural policy developments across the Asia Pacific region.

In the September 2016 issue, the AP Food Price and Policy Monitor identified following highlights:

• General inflation in the region in August was estimated at 3.9 percent, and food inflation was 4.9 percent.
• In Indonesia, annual prices for chilies remained around 70 percent higher than a year ago on reduced availability due to unusually long wet weather that negatively affected supply.
• In the Philippines, higher prices for vegetables were due to a smaller volume of deliveries in markets from producing provinces affected by typhoons Sarika and Haima.
• In Thailand, chicken meat production and exports were forecast to grow between 5 percent and 7 percent in 2017.
• In Samoa, annual price increases for commodities such as breadfruit, banana and taro were all above 50 percent