HQ Team
January 21, 2023: More than 131 million people in the Latin American and Caribbean population are not able to afford a healthy diet, due to high global food prices, according to a UN report.
“In the Caribbean, this figure reaches 52%: 27.8% in Mesoamerica and 18.4% in South America,” in 2020, the Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition in Latin America and the Caribbean stated.
“This represents an increase of eight million compared to 2019 and is due to the higher average daily cost of healthy diets in Latin America and the Caribbean compared to the rest of the world’s regions,” according to the report.
An average person spent $3.89 per person daily compared to the global average of $3.54. In the Caribbean, this reaches a value of $4.23, followed by South America and Mesoamerica with $3.61 and $3.47, respectively.
According to the report, there is a clear linkage between a country’s income level, poverty incidence and inequality in low dietary spending.
Ukraine war
A rise in international food prices experienced since 2020, exacerbated after the start of the war in Ukraine, and a regional increase in food inflation above the general level, have increased the difficulties for people to access a healthy diet.
“To contribute to the affordability of healthy diets, it is necessary to create incentives for the diversification of the production of nutritious foods aimed mainly at family farming and small-scale producers,” said Mario Lubetkin, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The authorities must take measures for the transparency of the prices of these foods in markets and trade, and actions such as cash transfers and improving school menus, he said.
The socioeconomic panorama of Latin America and the Caribbean is not encouraging. The most affected population groups are children under five and women, who suffer a higher prevalence of food insecurity than men.
Between 2019 and 2021, the number of hungry people in the region increased by 13.2 million, reaching 56.5 million hungry people in 2021.
n 2021, 40.6% of the regional population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, compared to 29.3% worldwide. Severe food insecurity was also more frequent in the region, at 14.2% compared to the world’s 11.7%.
