By Charlotte Webster-
Food prices around the world are rising faster than people’s incomes, and likely to get worse, according to experts
Prices in the US reportedly rose close to 3% in the year ending January 2, nearly double the overall inflation rate. Lockdowns globally is inflating prices and likely to lead to more price rises as businesses raise their prices to make up for lost revenues.
The US Department of Agriculture, the poorest Americans already use 36% of their wages for food.
The price of grains, sunflower seeds, soybeans and sugar have escalated, with global food prices reaching a six-year high back in January.
These prices are not expected to drop any time soon due to a combination of bad weather, increased demand, and global supply chains which have been affected by the pandemic.
Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Canada’s Dalhousie University, has warned that: ‘People will have to get used to paying more for food.’ He added: ‘It’s only going to get worse’.
Russians are now paying 61% more for sugar than they did just one year ago. Both Russia and Argentina have now placed price curbs on certain staples, while putting tariffs on exports to try and contain domestic food prices.
Emerging markets are also suffering a hike in the costs of raw material costs, with commodities such as oil, copper and grains being driven higher by expectations of a post-pandemic economic recovery as well as by loose monetary policies.
Consumers in the US, Canada and Europe ware being effects affected by the pandemic from coronavirus-related disruptions plus rising costs of transport and packaging – run out of ways of absorbing the surge.