Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale.^[1] Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing and food distribution. Fluctuation in food prices is determined by a number of compounding factors.^[2] Geopolitical events, global demand, exchange rates,^[3] government policy, diseases and crop yield, energy costs, availability of natural resources for agriculture,^[4] food speculation,^[5][6][7] changes in the use of soil and weather events directly affect food prices.^[8] To a certain extent, adverse price trends can be counteracted by food politics.

The consequences of food price fluctuation are multiple. Increases in food prices, or agflation, endangers food security, particularly for developing countries, and can cause social unrest.^[9][10][11] Increases in food prices is related to disparities in diet quality and health,^[12] particularly among vulnerable populations, such as women and children.^[13]

Food prices will on average continue to rise due to a variety of reasons. Growing world population will put more pressure on the supply and demand. Climate change will increase extreme weather events, including droughts, storms and heavy rain, and overall increases in temperature will affect food production.^[14]

An intervention to reduce food loss or waste, if sufficiently large, will affect prices upstream and downstream in the supply chain relative to where the intervention occurred.^[15] "The CPI (Consumer Price Index) for all food increased 0.8% from July 2022 to August 2022, and food prices were 11.4% higher than in August 2021."^[16]

The price of food has risen quite drastically during the 2007–08 and the 2010–2012 world food price crises. It has been most noticeable in developing countries while less so in the OECD countries and North America.^[25][26]

Consumer prices in the rich countries are massively influenced by the power of discount stores and constitute only a small part of the entire cost of living. In particular, Western pattern diet constituents like those that are processed by fast food chains are comparatively cheap in the Western hemisphere. Profits rely primarily on quantity (see mass production), less than high-price quality. For some product classes like dairy or meat, overproduction has twisted the price relations in a way utterly unknown in underdeveloped countries ("butter mountain"). The situation for poor societies is worsened by certain free trade agreements that allow easier export of food in the "southern" direction than vice versa.^{[clarification needed]} A striking example can be found in tomato exports from Italy to Ghana by virtue of the Economic Partnership Agreements where the artificially cheap vegetables play a significant role in the destruction of indigenous agriculture and a corresponding further decline in the already ailing economic power.^[27][28]

While median global food price inflation rose from 2.3% in December 2020 to 13.6% in January 2023, low-income countries experienced significantly steeper increases, with inflation peaking at 30% in May 2023. This trend has undermined household purchasing power, with likely consequences for food security and nutrition. High food price inflation may worsen food security, particularly in low-income countries. A 10% increase in food prices is associated with a 3.5% rise in moderate to severe food insecurity, and a 1.8% increase in severe food insecurity. At the peak of inflation, 65% of low-income and 61% of lower-middle-income countries, home to 1.5 billion people, faced food price inflation above 10%, deepening inequalities.^[29]

Year-on-year global average food price inflation increased from 5.8% in December 2020 to 23.3% in December 2022. These figures are heavily influenced by countries that experienced hyperinflation, such as the Sudan, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, where year-on-year inflation peaks reached levels well above 350%. Using the median provides a more accurate reflection of global inflation levels: median food price inflation increased sharply from 2.3% in December 2020 to 13.6% in January 2023.^[29]

Vulnerable groups, especially women and rural populations, are disproportionately affected due to limited resources, weaker social protection mechanisms, and fewer coping strategies. Child malnutrition can worsen with food price inflation. The 2021 to 2023 food price surge is associated with higher rates of wasting among children under five years of age. A 10% increase in food prices is associated with a 2.7% to 4.3% rise in overall wasting and a 4.8% to 6.1% increase in severe wasting among children under five years of age.^[29]

Rising staple food prices have put additional pressure on the diets of low-income households. From 2019 to 2024, the steepest food price increase sin countries like Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan were in starchy staple foods and oils. As starchy staple foods form the core of diets for the poorest households, such increases can undermine food security and nutrition; however, access to low-cost items in other food groups may help sustain dietary adequacy despite food price inflation.^[29]

Relative food prices across food groups and processing levels remained fairly stable globally between 2011 and 2021. Nutrient-dense foods such as fruits and vegetables continue to be the most expensive per kilocalorie. In general, ultra-processed foods tend to have lower prices per kilocalorie compared to less processed alternatives. Ultra-processed foods are increasingly displacing more nutritious alternatives despite growing evidence of their adverse health impacts.^[29]

Food price inflation has been particularly acute in Low Income Countries (LICs). Most households, even those dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods, rely on markets for their food supplies. Market-based food sourcing leaves households vulnerable to sharp price increases, exacerbating food insecurity, deepening poverty, and limiting access to and consumption of healthy diets. Smallholder farmers and agricultural labourers are often net food buyers, so rising food prices typically outweigh any income gains they receive from selling their produce.^[29]

In more unequal countries, weaker social protection systems, limited fiscal space, and larger vulnerable populations leave disadvantaged groups, especially women and rural households, at greater risk. Gender-based constraints, such as lower earnings, caregiving responsibilities, and restricted access to resources, reduce women’s capacity to cope with inflation, often forcing them to cut back on food intake during crises.^[29]

Controlling for access to essential services, including clean water, sanitation, and public health services, a 10% increase in food prices is associated with a 2.7% to 4.3% rise in wasting prevalence and a 4.8% to 6.1% increase in severe wasting among children under five years of age.^[29]

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has developed an "early warning tool" called the Food Price and Monitoring Analysis (FPMA).^[30] After the food crisis of 2008 and 2011, FAO developed an "early warning indicator to detect abnormal growth in prices in consumer markets in the developing world".^[31] The FPMA uses a variety of data sources to feed their database.^[32]

Fluctuating food prices have led to some initiative in the industrialized world as well. In Canada, Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph publish Canada's Food Price Report every year, since 2010. Read by millions of people every year, the report monitors and forecasts food prices for the coming year.^[33] The report was created by Canadian researchers Sylvain Charlebois and Francis Tapon.

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from The State of Food and Agriculture 2019. Moving forward on food loss and waste reduction, In brief​, 24, FAO, FAO.

 This article incorporates text from a free content work. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (license statement/permission). Text taken from The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025​, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

• Eric Holt-Gimenez; Raj Patel, eds. (2009). Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice. Food First Books. ISBN 978-0935028348.
• Schlosser, Eric (2002). Fast Food Nation: What The All-American Meal is Doing to the World. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-0141006871.

• 1975 food prize study, part 1. prepared by the staff of the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, United States Senate. 1975.
• 1975 food prize study, part 2. prepared by the staff of the Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, United States Senate. 1975.
• "Food price outlook 2016". Economic Research Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
• "Food prices". Financial Times.