Food is a basic necessity for survival and a fundamental component of our daily lives. However, for many people around the world, the cost of food can be a significant burden on their finances. Expensive food prices in countries can profoundly impact people’s ability to afford nutritious and healthy meals, which can ultimately affect their health and well-being.
One of the primary reasons for expensive food prices in countries is supply and demand. As the population grows, so does the demand for food. When the supply of food is limited, prices can increase, making it more expensive for people to buy the food they need. Additionally, changes in weather patterns, natural disasters, and other factors affecting food production and distribution can lead to price fluctuations.
Furthermore, production, processing, and transportation costs can also affect food prices. If the cost of producing, processing, and transporting food is high, the prices of food products can also be high. This can happen when there is a shortage of resources, such as water or land, or when energy prices are high, which can increase the cost of transportation and production.
Because food is the most essential commodity in any economy, considering the amount a country’s residents spend on feeding and living would help give an insight into the cost and standard of living in said region.
Numbeo, one of the world’s most profound data and research platforms, twice a year, computes data that determines the countries with the highest cost of living globally. Some of the indexes used to create the list includes the cost of feeding, particularly prices of groceries, and restaurants in the country.
Numbeo relies on user inputs and manually collected data from authoritative sources (websites of supermarkets, taxi company websites, governmental institutions, newspaper articles, other surveys, etc.) to get its indexes.
The manually collected data from established sources are then entered into the platform’s database twice a year. A more comprehensive breakdown of the methodology is available on Numbeo’s website.
Below is the list of the top 10 African countries where it is most expensive to eat. The food price index is based on Business Insider’s weighted average of Numbeo’s groceries index and restaurant index.
1. Senegal 40.7 (Food Price Index)
2. Mauritius 37.0
3 Namibia 35.0
4 Zimbabwe 33.6
5 South Africa 32.5
6. Botswana 31.6
7 Ivory Coast 31.4
8 Kenya 28.4
9 Cameroon 28.1
10. Nigeria 27.3
Source: Business Insider Africa
