Food prices

The World Bank predicts the strongest price crisis in 2022 since the 1970s due to jumps in the price of energy, metals and food. This is stated in the new Commodity Market Outlook.

Experts from the World Bank predict a 50% increase in energy prices in 2022, and other goods - by 20%.

Food prices will increase by more than 50% until the new harvest, according to an economic analysis by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Experts suggest government aid to producers and low-income people.

World food prices hit an all-time high in March as Russia's invasion of breadbasket Ukraine has disrupted wheat and coarse grain exports, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization said on April 8.

The FAO's food price index surged by 12.6 percent between February and March, "making a giant leap to a new highest level since its inception in 1990," said the FAO.

In early January, as part of efforts to contain inflation, which is at a two-decade high and running at one of the fastest rates in the EU, the Polish government announced it would introduce zero VAT on basic food items, natural gas and petrol. The move is part of efforts to relaunch the party ahead of the 2023 election as the one that looks after the interests of the working class.

In their personal experience, people feel a rise in prices - 97% of respondents aged 18 to 64 have felt the rise in prices, mostly in food, fuel and heating costs.

The market is facing a new round of price hikes, as everything shows, with companies declaring themselves unable to contain rising production costs.

The energy crisis is triggering another "wave" of prices rises, causing consumer dissatisfaction, and causing a reduction in purchases to what is absolutely necessary, while many are buying cheaper, lower nutritional value products.

Basic food is expected to rise by another 7% by the end of the year. This is predicted by the chairman of the State Commission on Commodity Exchanges and Markets Vladimir Ivanov. However, despite the high prices of electricity and natural gas, there will be no sharp jump. The reasons are the competitive market and shrinking consumption.

Turkey has ordered agricultural cooperatives to open about 1,000 new markets across the country to provide "suitable" prices for consumer goods, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Oct. 3.

"Markets run by Agricultural Credit Cooperatives are convenient in terms of prices and quality," Erdoğan told reporters after visiting an agricultural credit cooperative outlet in Istanbul.

The energy crisis is becoming global, Bloomberg predicts today. Countries are increasingly relying on natural gas for efforts to stop burning more coal and switch to cleaner energy sources. Countries are bidding to stockpile blue fuel, and exporters like Russia are restricting exports. The situation will worsen when temperatures drop, the agency predicts.

Global food prices surged in May at its fastest pace since October 2010, BBC reported. The foods rose by 39.7 % on monthly basis, a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) showed. The robust growth of prices was largely due to pandemic restrictions which disrupted deliveries in some parts of the world.