Title: Food Prices Continue to Rise Sharply in 2021, Except Meat
Headings: Shrinking Portions: Visualizing Rising Food Prices
Misc
Shrinking Portions: Visualizing Rising Food Prices
The Global Food Price Index Continues Rising in 2021
The Rising Food Prices of 2020 and 2021
Food Price Indices Month-over-Month Change
Surging Demand for Food at Home Drives Higher Prices
Meat and Dairy Prices Aren’t Keeping Up
Fighting the Fear of Inflating Food Prices
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Content: This graphic tracks the FAO’s food price indices along with their year-over-year (YoY) changes, showing the rapid price increases many of our staple food groups have had over the past year. The Rising Food Prices of 2020 and 2021
Over the past five years, the FAO’s food price index has fluctuated by a few percentage points, but the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic brought significant volatility. Sugar and vegetable oils saw the largest changes, dropping by double-digit percentages (-19.2% and -12.4% respectively) in March of 2020, before recovering with the strongest overall price surges of the various food groups. Food Price Indices Month-over-Month Change
Date
Food Price Index MoM Change
Meat Price Index MoM Change
Dairy Price Index MoM Change
Cereals Price Index MoM Change
Vegetable Oils Price Index MoM Change
Sugar Price Index MoM Change
Jan 2020
1.49%
-2.81%
0.29%
2.40%
7.09%
5.42%
Feb 2020
-3.02%
-2.99%
-0.87%
-1.09%
-10.21%
4.46%
Mar 2020
-4.33%
-1.09%
-1.36%
-1.71%
-12.40%
-19.15%
Apr 2020
-2.84%
-2.52%
-5.62%
1.64%
-5.03%
-14.48%
May 2020
-1.52%
-1.55%
-1.46%
-1.81%
-4.19%
7.28%
Jun 2020
2.31%
-0.63%
4.13%
-0.82%
11.31%
10.47%
Jul 2020
0.86%
-2.74%
3.56%
0.21%
7.62%
1.47%
Aug 2020
2.02%
0.00%
0.29%
2.17%
5.90%
6.71%
Sep 2020
2.19%
-0.76%
0.20%
5.05%
5.98%
-2.59%
Oct 2020
3.37%
0.33%
2.15%
7.31%
1.72%
7.22%
Nov 2020
4.15%
1.63%
0.86%
2.51%
14.57%
3.31%
Dec 2020
2.94%
1.61%
3.61%
1.31%
7.55%
-0.46%
Jan 2021
4.33%
1.05%
1.74%
7.16%
5.87%
8.15%
Feb 2021
2.47%
0.63%
1.71%
1.21%
6.20%
6.37%
The food price index increased by almost 17% YoY going into 2021, and while dairy, cereals, sugar, and vegetable oil prices all increased by double-digit percentages, meat prices rose less than 1% on average in 2021. Surging Demand for Food at Home Drives Higher Prices
Although food prices have always fluctuated depending on weather conditions and global trade affecting food supply, this year’s increases were especially driven by a weakening U.S. dollar and increased demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic resulted in severe changes to the world’s eating habits, with restaurant walk-ins and reservations down by more than 60% while demand for food at home increased as people stocked up on essentials. To go alongside this, trade and supply chain disruptions in essential agricultural materials like fertilizer resulted in an inconsistent output from farmers and food producers, causing issues right as demand surged. Meat and Dairy Prices Aren’t Keeping Up
As other food prices rise, the lack of significant increases in meat prices could reflect the avoidance of more expensive food products during tighter times, a lack of supply chain disruptions and constraints compared to agricultural sectors, or a larger societal trend of reduced animal product consumption. Although dairy prices increased by 10% YoY in 2021, this increase was less than half of the price increases of cereals and sugar (21.7% and 22.3% respectively), and less than a quarter of vegetable oils prices which rose by 44%. Plant-based alternatives are rapidly growing in popularity as nearly one in four Americans are reducing their meat consumption while veganism is rising in select European nations.