The Global Food Price Rollercoaster
The FAO Food Price Index, the standard gauge of world food commodity prices, monthly since 1990: a trade-weighted average of cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat, and sugar. Three spikes dominate the record — 2008, 2011, and the 2022 shock after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, when the index reached its all-time high — each followed by unrest in food-importing countries. Prices have retreated from the 2022 peak but remain well above the 2014-16 baseline.
What does it show?
World food prices have spiked three times in a generation — 2008, 2011, and the 2022 shock after Russia invaded Ukraine, when the index hit 160. It now sits near 131, still well above the 2014-16 baseline of 100.
Methodology
The FAO Food Price Index, monthly since 1990: a trade-weighted average of world prices for cereals, vegetable oils, dairy, meat, and sugar, indexed to the 2014-16 average. Nominal values as published; the FAO also publishes a real (deflated) variant that shows the 2022 spike was the sharpest since the 1970s. Global indices mask local famine prices, which can diverge sharply where conflict cuts supply lines.