Global food price index 2000-2024
The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 118 points in January 2024, down 1.1 points from December 2023 and 13.6 points lower than its level in the corresponding month last year. The highest value for the index in the past 23 years was reached in March 2022. However, food prices have been decreasing since.
Food prices worldwide
The annual FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) by category shows that the price of vegetable oils grew by a particularly large margin. One of the factors that influenced the spike in oil prices worldwide during 2020 and 2021 were the supply-chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, after the war in Ukraine, shipping costs and grain prices also had a noticeable impact on global food prices. Global food prices are calculated to have increased by 3.68 percent, due to changes in shipping costs and grain prices. The European Union (EU) has experienced a particularly high increase in the annual consumer prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages, as compared to other selected countries worldwide.
Inflation in Europe
The inflation rate for food in the EU grew from 0.2 percent in May 2021 to 19.2 percent in March 2023, as compared to the same month in the previous year. In the following months, the food inflation started decreasing again, reaching 7.6 percent in October 2023. The overall inflation rate in the Euro area reached its peak in October 2022 at 10.6 percent. Prices have since fallen to 4.3 percent in September 2023. As measured by the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), inflation rates in Europe were highest in Turkey, Czechia, and Serbia as of December 2023.