Published on: 2026-07-16
Source: United Nations – United Nations –
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July 15, 2026 Healthcare
Almost every third person on Earth cannot afford a healthy diet. This was stated by the FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero while speaking in New York on the eve of the publication of the annual report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on healthy diets.
According to Torero, over the past five years, the global cost of healthy eating has increased by 25 percent and reached $4.28 per person per day in purchasing power parity terms. As a result, 2.69 billion people—almost a third of the world’s population—cannot afford it. “Calories are relatively cheap, but healthy food is not,” Torero emphasized.
The economist noted that staple foods provide half of the calories a person needs, but account for only 13 percent of the cost of a healthy diet. Fruits and vegetables provide only five percent of the calories, but make up 16 percent of the cost, while animal-based products account for almost 30 percent. The main task, according to the expert, is to make healthy foods more accessible.
Torero emphasized that 70-75 percent of the cost of a healthy diet is formed after the products leave the farm: at the stages of storage, transportation, processing, and wholesale trade. Investments in rural roads, refrigeration infrastructure, and logistics for delivering fruits and vegetables, according to FAO estimates, have the greatest effect in reducing the cost of healthy nutrition.
The report challenges traditional approaches: modeling shows that subsidies in the production of staple foods can increase the cost of a healthy diet. FAO calls for reducing structural costs in supply chains, redirecting investments towards nutritious foods, and strengthening cross-sectoral links based on up-to-date data.
Torero warned that the global situation, and in particular the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, remains difficult: a sulfur shortage is affecting phosphate fertilizer production; high resource prices are complicating farmers’ work. Although good harvests in recent years have kept prices in check for most products, except rice and wheat, the situation may change in the future.
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