Global food prices hit a six-month low in July led mainly by sharp declines in grains, oilseeds and dairy, which balanced out rising meat and firm sugar prices, the United Nations food agency said on Thursday.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) price index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, averaged 203.9 points in July, down 4.4 points or 2.1 percent from June.

The figure was 3.5 points or 1.7 percent below July 2013.

FAO's cereal price index averaged 185.4 points in July, down 10.7 points or 5.5 percent from June, and as much as 36.9 points below the year-ago level, mainly due to excellent production prospects in many major producing countries and the expectation of abundant exportable supplies, FAO said.

FAO raised its outlook for global cereal production by 18 million tonnes to 2.498 billion tonnes.

FAO revised its estimate for world cereals stocks at the end of the 2015 season to 604.1 million tonnes, 5 percent higher than its previous estimate of 576 million tonnes. - Reuters