TOP 10 Countries with Highest Food Inflation (2025)

As the global economy grapples with lingering post-pandemic disruptions, geopolitical conflicts, and escalating trade barriers, food inflation has emerged as a persistent and acute challenge, particularly in vulnerable emerging and low-income nations. In 2025, while headline inflation moderates to an average of 4.5% worldwide according to IMF projections, food-specific CPI spikes—driven by volatile commodity prices, supply chain bottlenecks, and currency depreciations—threaten to exacerbate food insecurity for millions. This analysis spotlights the top 10 countries projected to face the highest food inflation rates in 2025, often exceeding 20%, highlighting staples like grains, oils, and meats as key volatility drivers. Drawing on data from the World Bank, IMF, OECD, and Trading Economics, we explore the underlying factors fueling these surges and their implications for global stability.

Food inflation, a subset of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) focusing on the price changes of essential consumables such as bread, rice, dairy, and vegetables, disproportionately impacts low-income households where food constitutes 50-70% of expenditures. Unlike general inflation, which benefits from broad-based disinflation in services and durables, food CPI remains sticky due to its exposure to exogenous shocks: extreme weather events, export restrictions, and fertilizer cost hikes. The World Bank's June 2025 Global Economic Prospects warns that real food price inflation in low-income countries averaged nearly 30% in early 2025, outpacing overall CPI by wide margins and pushing severe food insecurity toward 950 million people by year-end.

“Persistent food price spikes in fragile economies risk undoing hard-won gains in poverty reduction, as households divert resources from nutrition to survival. Targeted subsidies and trade facilitation are urgent imperatives.”
— M. Ayhan Kose, World Bank Deputy Chief Economist, June 2025

Key drivers of 2025's food inflation outliers include climate-induced crop failures in sub-Saharan Africa, ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict disruptions to grain exports, and El Niño's lingering effects on rice and maize yields in Asia. Currency weaknesses in import-dependent nations amplify these pressures, as depreciating local currencies inflate the cost of dollar-denominated staples. For instance, Argentina's peso devaluation has compounded drought-related soy and wheat losses, projecting food CPI at over 100%. Similarly, Turkey's lira turmoil, coupled with lira-denominated import costs, sustains double-digit food price growth despite central bank hikes.

Structural vulnerabilities exacerbate the issue. Many high-inflation countries rely on a narrow basket of staples—wheat in the Middle East, rice in South Asia—making them susceptible to localized shocks. The OECD's October 2025 Consumer Prices update notes marked food inflation accelerations in Colombia, Korea, and Turkey, where processed food and beverage costs rose 15-20% year-over-year. Meanwhile, biofuel mandates and livestock feed competition divert grains from human consumption, adding 2-3% to global food CPI per FAO estimates.