Labour shortages, soaring energy costs and Russia’s war in Ukraine are propelling prices for kitchen staples to new records, dragging family finances along for the ride
An employee cuts watermelon at a grocery store in Beijing, China. File photo: BLOOMBERG/ANDREA VERDELLI
“My food budget is double now, so I spend about 40,000 naira and even with that, you are not getting everything,” said Ekerin, 37, whose family is living on both her salary and her husband’s. Her children won’t stop asking for bread, which now comes in smaller packages for more money. Sometimes, when her family eats in the morning, they skip lunch and hold out for dinner. “You don’t eat what you feel like eating, but what is available.
With scorching temperatures hitting crops around the globe this growing season and Ukrainian grain shipments only just resuming after months of delays, world hunger levels for 2022 continue to look dire. “All of us hoped that this year would be better,” said Akrur Barua, an economist at Deloitte Research & Insights. “There were promising signs of growth and economies moving up — and we haven’t seen that. It’s still quite volatile.”For Izabel Francisca Teixeira Valdeci, a 61-year-old civil servant in Guarulhos, a city bordering Sao Paulo, prices for just about every item on her shopping list are now higher than a year ago, including staples like rice, beans, meat and soybean oil.
“I am not the only person who is facing the dire situation of a loss in income. Most of my friends and neighbours are also in the same boat,” Nayak, 54, said when recontacted this year. “At the same time, prices of food items have risen sharply, and that’s a misfortune and hurting us.” Her older children aren’t immune either as prices go up. After a recent visit to her mother’s house in the inland city of Ibadan, Ekerin’s eldest cried and begged to stay, unaware the older woman had been making sacrifices to feed the children, too.
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