Global food prices hit a record high in February, climbing 24% higher than where they were at the same period a year previous, following a 4% month-on-month rise. The European Central Bank has already updated its inflation forecast for the year, now expecting inflation for 2022 to reach 5.1%. It flagged that energy prices are expected to remain high and that other commodities including food and metals “might also be severely affected by the conflict given the role of Russia and Ukraine in global supplies of these commodities.
There are many components to increasing food prices, such as energy, and labor costs, the cost for the machinery, the cost for the transport, the cost for the branding, the packaging of the products. Furthermore, food prices are set internationally and with Ukraine and Russia both pulling their exports for now this will continue to have an impact. How long the impact will be will depend on the length of the war and the state of the infrastructure once the dust settles.
All of that “means in this year 2022, we are likely going to live with high and very high food prices,” Dr. Matin Qaim Professor of Agricultural Economics and Director of the Center for Development Research at the University of Bonn, told Euronews.
Published 27/04/2022
By Ashley Jones
