Global Accessibility Crisis: Healthy Food Prices Jumped by 25% in Five Years

The global price of healthy eating has undergone a significant jump of 25% over the last five years, warns the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). This trend creates serious challenges for global food security and public health.

According to FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torelló, the current cost of providing a diet containing all necessary nutrients is $4.28 per person per day (adjusted for standard of living). This indicator already exceeds the international extreme poverty threshold, which is set at $3 per day. As a result, approximately 2.69 billion people – nearly one in three in the world – cannot afford healthy nutrition.

The main problem, Torelló emphasizes, is not a lack of calories, but the price of nutritional composition. "Calories are relatively cheap, but nutrition is not," he notes. The analysis shows a distinct difference in the distribution of costs:

• Cereals and root vegetables: provide a large portion of calories but account for only 13% of diet costs.
• Fruits and vegetables: provide only 5% of calories but account for 16% of total expenditure.
• Animal-based products: represent almost 30% of the cost of healthy eating.

The challenge for the global economy and agriculture is no longer just in producing enough calories, but in the proper distribution and accessibility of micronutrient-rich products. The lack of access to such foods is a direct factor in the increasing number of cases of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).