WorldVitals

World Vitals / Diet cost and affordability

Food Prices

Track international food price pressure through FAO monthly food commodity indices.

What this page shows

Food price pages separate international commodity price pressure from domestic affordability and emergency food insecurity. The first production layer is FAO's monthly Food Price Index and five commodity group indices.

The primary charts now come from normalized database observations. Snapshot cards remain useful for latest values, but time series and paired relationships get chart types that match the question.

Database charts

Food Prices over time and in context

These charts use normalized observations from the World Vitals database. Time-series charts show change; scatter plots show paired relationships where the data actually supports comparison.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Global food prices are rising again

The FAO Food Price Index tracks monthly international prices for a basket of traded food commodities.

130.8May 2026

Hover or focus a point for exact date, value, unit, and source.

421061691990May 2026
May 2026130.8 index, 2014-2016=100Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Cereal prices show staple-food pressure

Cereals are tracked separately because staple grain pressure can move differently from the full food basket.

114.3May 2026

Hover or focus a point for exact date, value, unit, and source.

38.61111831990May 2026
May 2026114.3 index, 2014-2016=100Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Vegetable oils are the volatile pressure point

The oils index often reacts strongly to energy markets, biofuel demand, weather, and trade disruption.

185May 2026

Hover or focus a point for exact date, value, unit, and source.

18.61442691990May 2026
May 2026185 index, 2014-2016=100Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Meat prices reached record territory

The FAO meat index helps separate animal-protein market pressure from cereals, dairy, oils, and sugar.

130.5May 2026

Hover or focus a point for exact date, value, unit, and source.

4691.41371990May 2026
May 2026130.5 index, 2014-2016=100Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Dairy prices are moving differently from the full basket

Dairy can diverge from the headline food index because milk supply cycles and export demand differ.

119.2May 2026

Hover or focus a point for exact date, value, unit, and source.

27.197.51681990May 2026
May 2026119.2 index, 2014-2016=100Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Sugar prices swing with harvests and energy-linked ethanol demand

Sugar is tracked separately because supply expectations and biofuel economics can dominate the signal.

95.1May 2026

Hover or focus a point for exact date, value, unit, and source.

19.71081951990May 2026
May 202695.1 index, 2014-2016=100Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

FAO monthly update

Food price pressure now

FAO publishes the Food Price Index monthly. World Vitals stores the headline basket and commodity group indices so the page can show both the broad signal and the category driving the move.

Headline index130.8

May 2026, index, 2014-2016=100

Month change-0.2%

-0.2 points from previous month

Year change+2.9%

+3.7 points from same month last year

Strongest monthly riseSugar

+7.5%

Food130.8
MoM-0.2%
YoY+2.9%
Vegetable Oil185
MoM-4.6%
YoY+21.6%
Meat130.5
MoM+0.1%
YoY+6.3%
Cereal114.3
MoM+2.7%
YoY+4.9%
Dairy119.2
MoM-0.4%
YoY-22.4%
Sugar95.1
MoM+7.5%
YoY-13.1%

Metric snapshots

Food Prices latest values

Snapshot and live-rate cards are kept separate from historical charts so they do not pretend to show a trend.

Economyestimated live

Economic output this year

$39.41T
current US dollars2024estimated live

Live-rate estimate from latest annual world GDP. It is an economic tempo indicator, not real-time accounting.

World Bank / 2024
Foodlatest snapshot

People facing hunger

673.00M
people2024latest snapshot

Approximate latest UN estimate of people affected by chronic undernourishment.

FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO / 2024
Economylatest annual

World GDP

$110.98T
current US dollars2024latest annual

Latest World Bank world GDP value in current US dollars.

World Bank / 2024

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