NZ Food Inflation Improving, But Prices Skyrocket For Poor Nations

• Food price inflation for ten basic food items has improved in New Zealand from a 56% rise in 2023 to an 18% drop in 2024
• It takes 2.4 hours to pay for a basic food basket in NZ and 1.7 hours in Australia. This compares with 47 days in Barundi and 20 days in Sudan.
• There is growing global inequality in food access with food price inflation disproportionately affecting low-income nations.
• Wealthier nations need to commit to funding emergency food aid and humanitarian aid.

A new report on food price inflation shows basic food items are now more affordable in New Zealand, but reveals devastating increases for some of the world’s poorest countries, including Sudan, Burundi, and Timor Leste.

World Vision’s annual Price Shocks Report examines food price inflation in 77 countries for ten common food items, including rice, bananas, chicken, tomatoes, eggs, milk, and oil, and compares these with prices a year ago.

The 2025 report finds that food prices dropped 18% in New Zealand in 2024, compared with a 56% increase for the same basic food items in 2023. The average New Zealander would have to work for 2.4 hours to pay for the ten common food items. This compares with three hours in 2023.

However, while food price inflation has improved in more wealthy nations, such as New Zealand, Australia, France, Germany, Ireland and the United States, it has dramatically worsened for many of the world’s poorest countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 16 countries in this year’s study, it would take more than one week of work to earn enough money to pay for World Vision’s standard food basket.

These countries, such as Sudan, Chad, Somalia, and Burundi are united in facing climate and environmental extremes, along with armed conflict, political instability and massive population displacement.

World Vision Head of Advocacy and Justice, Rebekah Armstrong, says the report highlights the urgent need for adequate funding for emergency food aid.

“This report is released in turbulent and uncertain times and the findings emphasise the need for urgent action to sustain global food systems and prevent the agonising impacts of hunger.

“This requires interventions to address the root causes of hunger, but it also demands that we fund and deliver adequate emergency food aid.

“Sadly, we know that humanitarian funding for food security programming is expected to fall far short of the target to address predicted needs in 2025, and that means millions will go hungry due a deficit of political will and resources. It doesn’t have to be this way,” she says.

World Vision is calling on the New Zealand government to make a strong commitment to support humanitarian food aid, climate adaptation, and global hunger responses — especially within the Asia-Pacific region, where communities are particularly vulnerable to climate and economic shocks.

Armstrong says in addition to saving millions of lives, emergency food aid and cash grants for food are one of the key ways to avoid greater political unrest around the world.

“Food insecurity is an indicator of wider instability, but it also contributes to political unrest, conflict, economic stagnation and delays in development. Addressing food security is a proven method to help create a safer and more secure world for everyone,” she says.

Armstrong says in 2024, only 47% of required humanitarian food assistance was funded leaving millions without support.

She says the Rohingya crisis, the ongoing war in Sudan, prolonged droughts in the Horn of Africa and cyclones in the Pacific all contribute to conditions that exacerbate hunger.

“We are at a breaking point. Governments and the global community need to fulfil the commitments they have made and act now to scale up food aid, support smallholder farmers and invest in long-term solutions to prevent millions more from falling into famine.”

New Zealanders who want to support emergency food aid can give here: wvnz.org.nz/wfp

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