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The FAO Food Price Index rose slightly in July by 1.2 percent. This increase, while marginal, marks the second consecutive monthly rise in food prices. Rising vegetable oil, dairy, and sugar prices drove the overall higher index.

Rapid urbanization and income growth are driving shifts in the diets of urban consumers in low-income countries in Africa and South Asia from inexpensive staple cereals to higher-value products such as fruits, vegetables, and animal-sourced foods. While the current disruption to incomes and supply chains from the COVID-19 pandemic may slow these developments and threaten food security in the near term, the longer-term demographic trends and related demand changes will provide important opportunities for agricultural development and reducing rural poverty.

The world is not on track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of zero hunger by 2030, according to the 2020 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, released in mid-July.

The FAO Food Price Index rose in June, making the first such increase in 2020. Higher prices for vegetable oils, sugar, and dairy products drove the 2.4 percent increase.

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the global economy hard, and in many places other factors—such as the locust invasion in East Africa and falling export commodity prices—are compounding its effects. FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero observes that no modern economy has experienced anything like the combination of the Great Lockdown and the worst recession since the Great Depression, and that these could trigger a global food crisis—with Africa south of the Sahara especially vulnerable. He lays out a series of policy prescriptions that can help keep millions from starvation and fortify food systems for a post-pandemic world.—Johan Swinnen, series co-editor and IFPRI Director General.