Global food prices have increased substantially since
mid-2010, as have prices in many developing countries.
In this study we assess the poverty impact of the price
changes between June and December 2010 in twentyeight
low and middle income countries. This is done by
gathering detailed information on individual households'
food production and consumption levels for thirtyeight
agricultural and food commodities to assess the
impacts on household welfare. This study estimates that
this sudden food price surge increased the number of
poor people globally, but with considerably different
impacts in different countries. The heterogeneity of these
impacts is partly related to the wide variation in the
transmission of global prices to local prices and partly
to differences in households’ patterns of production and
consumption. On balance, the adverse welfare impact on
net buyers outweighs the benefits to net sellers resulting
in an increase in the number of poor and in the depth of
poverty. We estimate that the average poverty change was
1.1 percentage points in low income countries and 0.7
percentage points in middle income countries with a net
increase of 44 million people falling below the $1.25 per
day extreme poverty line.