LONDON - The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced yesterday that global food prices reached a record high last month, surpassing the previous highs recorded in 2007-08, the Financial Times reports.

The organization characterized the increase as "alarming," while cautioning "it will be foolish to assume this is the peak."

The increase triggered fears of repeating the 2007-08 crisis, which resulted in food riots in Haiti and Bangladesh, when agricultural commodity prices skyrocketed.

The FAO said its food price index, a basket that tracks the wholesale cost of commodities such as wheat, corn, and rice, increased last month by almost 4.2 percent from November and stands at its highest level since the measure was first calculated in 1990. During the 2007-08 crisis, the index reached a peak of 213.5; it currently stands at 214.7.

"This is a high prices situation," said Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist at the FAO, though he said the costs of cereals ?" particularly rice ?" were below the 2007-08 peaks. "Rice and wheat are, from a global food security perspective, the critical agricultural commodities."

The price for sugar recently reached a 30-year high, and oilseeds and meat have risen substantially, too.

The FT projected that the rise of commodity prices would make it likely that the global food import bill would reach a record high this year, after topping $1 trillion last year.