Food, in brief

Food prices around the world are set to rise faster in the coming months and stay high into 2027, Reuters reported on Monday. [1] Maximo Torero, chief economist at the FAO, the UN's food agency, expects the biggest effect at the end of this year and early next year. [1]

Rice in Indonesia has hit record prices, with the rains forecast to come late. [1] Sugar in India hit an all-time high after the weakest monsoon in more than a decade cut the crop. [1]

In Egypt a big loaf of bread that is not paid for by the state now costs about 5 Egyptian pounds, up from 4 in July. [1] Cooking oil in the United Arab Emirates costs about 40% more. [1]

Wheat prices are up more than 30% this year. [1] Attacks on ports and grain stores in the Black Sea have disrupted wheat shipments. [1] Ships also avoid the Red Sea by sailing the longer way around Africa. [1]

The war between Iran and the US and Israel has raised fuel prices and held up fertiliser leaving the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz. [1] Shipping on some routes, such as the Black Sea to Southeast Asia, costs about 50% more. [1]

Indonesia received 41% less wheat in September than a year earlier, 491,000 tonnes. [1] Some of its flour mills are running below capacity, a milling company executive said. [1]

Food makers buy grain on contracts of three to six months, and they are now renewing them at higher prices. [1] Franciscus Welirang of Indofood, Indonesia's biggest food company, says a weaker rupiah makes the shipping bill bigger still. [1]

Importers in the Middle East and Africa that skipped buying after good harvests at home will soon need to buy again. [1] Alexander Karavaytsev of the International Grains Council, which tracks the world grain trade, expects a new wave of demand within a couple of months. [1]

Not everywhere is dearer. Zambia's record maize harvest left its maize 15% cheaper than a year ago. [2] Its food inflation fell to just under 6% in September, from about 15% a year earlier. [2] In Nigeria, food inflation fell to 19.6% in August, from 25.3% a year earlier. [2]

Malawi's maize, from a bigger home harvest, cost 29.3% less in September than a year earlier. [2] Wheat sold abroad by the US cost 49.9% more, after dry weather and the trouble in the Black Sea. [2] Argentina's cost 15.5% more, as buyers looked for wheat from elsewhere. [2]

Joseph Glauber, a former chief economist at the US farm department, names El Nino and dearer fertiliser as the two biggest threats to food output in 2027. [3] He expects farmers to spread less fertiliser, and possibly to harvest less as a result. [3]

In the US, wholesale food prices rose 1.2% from August to September, the biggest monthly rise since February. [4] In the EU, food and drink prices rose 34% between August 2021 and August 2026, Euronews found in official figures. [5]

Why it matters. Watch whether wheat buyers in the Middle East and Africa return to the market in the next couple of months, as the International Grains Council expects, and whether Australia's and Argentina's wheat harvests come in as forecast. [1]

The World Food Programme, the UN agency that hands out food in emergencies, will cut about 500,000 people in Gaza off its aid in the next few weeks. [7] Its acting head, Carl Skau, told NPR on Sunday that the reason is money, not need or access. [7] Nearly 1.4 million people, more than two-thirds of Gaza, face crisis levels of hunger. [7] Last week COGAT, the Israeli body that runs Gaza's crossings, said goods for sale would stop going in, amid a dispute over taxes on the trucks. [9][7]

Why it matters. Families Skau met near the front line eat once a day and have no gas to cook, and winter is coming. [7] He saw some trucks of goods for sale moving again. [7] United Arab Emirates convoys took in 789 tonnes of food and shelter supplies this week, but Skau says shops must work again for fresh food to come in. [8][7]

The Economic Research Service, the US farm department's forecasting arm, cut its forecast for US pork by 150 million pounds this year and 245 million pounds in 2027. [10] The September count of US pigs pointed to fewer sows giving birth in the months ahead. [10] It also cut this year's US milk output to 236.9 billion pounds, because there are fewer dairy cows and each gives less milk. [10] It lowered its forecast for egg prices, as laying flocks grow. [10]

Why it matters. Fewer piglets born now means less pork for sale through next year. [10] The forecast price farmers get for milk in 2027 rose 65 cents, to 20.45 dollars for every 100 pounds of milk. [10]

Rice farmers in Pakpattan, Okara and Sahiwal, in Pakistan's Punjab province, report harvests of only 20 to 35 maunds an acre, a maund being about 40 kilograms. [11] Stem borers, caterpillars that eat into the stalk, are in almost every field, two farm experts wrote in Dawn, a Pakistani newspaper. [11] Many farmers now grow an early rice crop from March, and it lets the pests breed before the main crop. [11] Punjab lifted its ban on early rice in April 2025 and took no clear position in 2026. [11]

Why it matters. Rice is Pakistan's biggest farm export. [11] Farmers who never grew the early crop still pay for extra sprays, while pesticide sellers report higher sales. [11]

Cotton reaching Pakistan's ginning factories, which separate the fibre from the seed, rose 7.53% from a year earlier to 4.08 million bales by 15 October, the ginners' association says. [12] Yet around 500 gins and more than 150 textile mills have closed, the textile mills' association says. [12] Industry groups blame high costs and cheap yarn and fabric brought in under an export scheme, which they say is sold inside Pakistan instead. [12]

Why it matters. A cotton research official warned that farmers may plant less next season if cotton keeps paying less than other crops. [12] Punjab's crop office puts the province's crop at 2.98 million bales, while the ginners count 1.64 million arriving there so far, a gap the ginners' forum chairman pointed out. [12]

The Abattoir Sector Group, a coalition of more than 150 food and farming bodies, has written to Prime Minister Andy Burnham asking for lighter rules and targeted money for small abattoirs. [13] The UK had about 2,500 abattoirs in the 1970s and has about 200 now. [13] In a 2025 survey of 850 farmers, two-thirds had struggled to find an abattoir, and 43% said they could not sell meat locally if theirs shut. [13]

Why it matters. Small abattoirs let farmers sell meat straight to butchers, farm shops and shoppers, which keeps more of the money near the farm. [13] For one East Sussex sheep farmer, taking five sheep to the next nearest abattoir and collecting the meat means about six hours on the road. [13]

Ethoxyquin is a chemical used since the 1960s to stop fishmeal catching fire on ships. [14] It is still allowed in animal feed in the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea, an investigation by The Outlaw Ocean Project found. [14] Fishmeal is ground, dried fish that is fed to farmed fish. [14] The EU suspended its use in animal feed in 2017, and studies have linked it to harm in laboratory animals. [14] Canada's food agency does not check whether it ends up in seafood, its 2022 report shows. [14]

Why it matters. More than half of the seafood eaten in the world now comes from fish farms, and most farmed species are fed fishmeal. [14] Its most popular replacement, BHA, is listed by the US National Toxicology Program, a government research body, as reasonably expected to cause cancer in people. [14]

The publisher of Food Safety News, a US food-safety lawyer, has posted a draft petition asking the FDA, the US food regulator, to make baby formula makers test for the germ behind infant botulism. [15] He will file it with 23 parents whose babies were taken to hospital, and wants comments by 30 October. [15] Two outbreaks, from ByHeart and Nara Organics formula, put 52 babies in hospital, and the FDA linked both to one milk supplier. [15] The 22 dairies the milk was traced to have never been named, a US TV station, WJLA, reported. [15]

Why it matters. ByHeart tested 472 samples from its own factories and all were clean, because the germ came in with the milk powder. [15] In February the FDA found a botulism-type germ in 2 of 48 samples of milk powder sold to formula makers. [15]

Farmers in Bahi District, near Dodoma in central Tanzania, say regrowing trees on their land has raised their maize harvests. [16] Godfrey Wilson, 24, said two acres once gave him six sacks, and one acre now gives him up to 15. [16] The Kisiki Hai programme, run by the LEAD Foundation with a partner group, Justdiggit, aims to regrow more than 32 million trees on 500,000 hectares of farmland. [16] It has launched a phone app, Kijani, to reach more farmers. [16]

Why it matters. The farmers say the trees keep water in the soil through short rainy seasons, and fallen leaves feed it. [16] Women in the villages also walk less far to collect firewood. [16]

Spar, one of Austria's biggest grocery chains, is testing two old apple varieties with Frutura, a fruit and vegetable firm: the Ilzer Rosenapfel, from about 1840, and the Falchs Gulderling, from the 1870s. [17] Only about 10 of Austria's 2,000 apple types reach supermarkets. [17] A test orchard in Styria has 2,150 trees, and the first fruit was picked this week. [17] It goes to a shop in Vienna and to schools next month. [17]

Why it matters. The trial will test whether old varieties resist disease, keep on the shelf and grow in modern orchards. [17] Arche Noah, an Austrian group that saves old seeds and plants, helped choose them. [17]

Grass yields were 16% lower by mid-August than in 2025, James Daniel, a consultant at Precision Grazing, told Farmers Weekly, a British farm paper. [18] He expects a shortfall of at least 10% to 15% by the end of the year, and 25% to 33% on some dry farms. [18] Rain in August and September brought grass back on some farms in north-west England. [18] Others in north-east England were growing just 4 kilograms of dry grass a hectare in October. [18]

Why it matters. Some farms fed their winter silage during the summer drought, and some winter crops for animals failed. [18] Those farms start the winter with less feed and may need to buy hay or straw. [18]

Lidl US is recalling one batch of its Gelatelli coffee and vanilla gelato after routine testing found Listeria, a germ that can cause serious illness. [19] The gelato was sold in Lidl stores in nine US states and Washington DC between 19 July and 15 October. [19] Its best-by date is March 2028, so tubs may still be in freezers. [19] No illnesses have been reported. [19]

Why it matters. Listeria can take up to 70 days to cause symptoms. [19] Pregnant women, old people, young children and people with weak immune systems face the most danger. [19]

Agrifac, a Dutch maker of crop sprayers, is building three electric drives for sprayers that carry their own engine instead of being pulled by a tractor. [20] They are diesel-electric, a diesel and battery hybrid, and fully battery-powered. [20] It says the diesel-electric version should use about 35% less fuel than today's diesel models, and the hybrid up to 50% less. [20] The hybrid can deliver 301 horsepower continuously. [20] The first machine for sale is due in 2027. [20]

Why it matters. The fuel savings are the company's own figures, and the machines are still being tested. [20] Agrifac says the change will reach different countries at different times. [20]

SenseUP, a German start-up, says it can make RNAi pesticides cheap and stable enough for ordinary farms. [21] RNAi, or RNA interference, switches off one gene in a pest, so it can kill an insect or fungus without harming soil or wildlife. [21] SenseUP grows the active material inside bacteria and says it keeps for 18 months or more at room temperature. [21] Its co-chief executive, Juan Martinez, spoke at a farm technology summit in London. [21]

Why it matters. Older chemical sprays are becoming less effective and carry costs for the environment. [21] The cost and shelf-life claims are the company's own. [21]

St Paul's Charity in Crewe, a town in north-west England, has launched an appeal because its food bank spends about 1,000 pounds a week on food while donations get harder to find. [22] It gives out about 10 food parcels a day. [22] It is asking people to give 2 pounds a month. [22] Peter Dean, who runs the food bank, said many of the people who come are in work and still poor. [22]

Why it matters. Chief executive Jez Chalmers said the rising cost of living raises the number of people who need help and cuts what others can give. [22]