Supply Chains Latest: Food Inflation Hits Home Around the World. - Bloomberg

In India, father of one Harishchandra Barik is having to make hard choices for his family when it comes to food. There is less meat, fish or fruit these days on the table, more eggs instead. Chickpeas and paneer, a type of local cottage cheese, have got out of reach.

“We are not able to feed our son properly,” says Barik, 46, whose family of three all lost weight in the past few months amid rising food costs and curbed income from his hairdressing salon.

His story is not an isolated one. Around the world, food inflation is forcing families to make sacrifices. Meat is often the first to go, ceding space to less expensive proteins such as beans. For some people, a glass of milk has become a luxury reserved only for children. 

Bloomberg spoke to families from around the world, spotlighting the kinds of trade-offs households are having to make to feed themselves. In Nigeria, Nafisat Ekerin implores vendors to cut her a deal — something she wasn’t in the habit of doing before Covid-19. In Brazil, Izabel Francisca Teixeira Valdeci scours open-air markets and supermarkets for the best deals. In the U.S., Melissa “Liss” Burnell, buys meat in bulk.

Food prices in July were up 31% from the same month last year, according to a gauge from the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. While much of the rise is transitory, factors such as climate change and China’s strong appetite for imports will likely persist.

QuickTake: Why Inflation Is Scaring Latin America If Not the Fed

Central banks should take note. Rising food and fuel costs are often disregarded in their policies for their volatile nature, but they are very much on ordinary people’s minds when they think about inflation, according to Columbia Business School’s Shang-Jin Wei. As Cullen Hendrix at the Peterson Institute for International Economics says, “food fundamentally touches all of us.”

—Pratik Parija in New Delhi

Charted Territory

 

Russian Wheat Share

Nation accounts for just a fifth of Egypt's tender purchases this season

Source: Tender results compiled by Bloomberg for crop year starting July 1

Russia’s battle against inflation is eroding its dominance in the wheat market. President Vladimir Putin’s attempts to keep a lid on rising food costs, coupled with worsening crop prospects, have curbed exports to Egypt, one of the most important buyers. Still, the smaller overseas sales have so far offered little respite for local Russian prices, with domestic wheat costs at the highest for this time of year in at least a decade.

Today’s Must Reads

• Tesla of tractors | A crop of electric startups are hitting the $292 billion heavy machinery market just in time for harvest.
• Burger inflation | The owner of Burger King and Popeyes expects U.S. beef costs to climb this quarter as labor shortages across the country make it tough to staff meatpacking plants.
• Waste busters | Food waste fighter Apeel Sciences doubled its valuation to over $2 billion after raising $250 million to speed up its bid to eliminate global food rot.
• Wheat hungry | Syria blocked imports of items ranging from cheddar cheese to cashew nuts and mobile phones as the war-torn country seeks to save its dwindling foreign currency reserves for purchases of wheat.
• Family feud | A bitter row between the chairman of WH Group and his son over succession and management issues has wiped out more than $2 billion of market value in the world’s largest pork processor.
• Vegan chorizo | Chipotle  is introducing a new plant-based chorizo that’s made in-house, bypassing faux-meat giants such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.
• Blue root | Blue turmeric is the latest super spice to shake up pro kitchens, with the little-known variety offering unique flavor and health benefits without dyeing your food — or fingers.
• Fertilizer takedown | Bayer and other investors will funnel $45 million to an agriculture startup that claims its products can cut 30% of global nitrogen fertilizer use, the equivalent of removing 200 million cars from the road.

On the Bloomberg Terminal

• Packaged food | Inflation won’t impede European packaged-food makers if consumers accept regular price rises, yet if the current bout of spiraling costs proves transitory, this may not happen, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
• Chemical ban | Chlorpyrifos will be banned from use on food crops to protect children’s developing brains in a decision that will deprive farmers of an insecticide commonly used on corn and soybeans, Bloomberg Law reports.
• Use the AHOY function to track global commodities trade flows.
• Click HERE for automated stories about supply chains.
• See BNEF for BloombergNEF’s analysis of clean energy, advanced transport, digital industry, innovative materials, and commodities.
• Click VRUS on the terminal for news and data on the coronavirus and here for maps and charts.

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— With assistance by Ana Monteiro

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