However, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization warned that food prices remain high in developing countries and that poor people's access to food is still threatened by the global economic downturn.

'In spite of strong gains in recent weeks, international prices of most agricultural commodities have fallen in 2009 from their 2008 heights, an indication that many markets are slowly returning into balance,' the agency said in a new food report.

World cereal production this year is expected to be the second largest after 2008's record, reaching 2.219 billion tons, compared with 2.287 billion tons last year, FAO said.

Last year's crop helped replenish stocks, but food prices remained high in many developing countries despite a decline in the second half of 2008.

Purchasers' incomes fell amid the global financial turmoil, the report said. -- AP