Islamabad: Cereals are cheapest in Punjab, fruits in Sindh and vegetables in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while Balochistan has the highest prices for most healthy food groups, a new United Nations report says.
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2026, jointly released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization this week, uses Pakistan as one of only three countries, alongside Ghana and Nigeria, to examine how the cost of healthy diets varies across provinces and changes during different seasons.
Using Islamabad as the benchmark, the analysis found Punjab had the lowest prices for cereals, including wheat, rice and other grains, at about 11 percent below Islamabad. Punjab also recorded the lowest prices for meat, milk, eggs and other animal foods. In contrast, Balochistan consistently had the highest relative costs for cereals, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds, and cooking oils and fats.
Sindh emerged as the province with the cheapest fruits and cooking oils and fats, while Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recorded the lowest vegetable prices. The findings show that the cost of a healthy diet differs considerably across Pakistan, meaning families pay different prices for nutritious foods depending on where they live.
The UN agencies also found that healthy food prices fluctuate significantly during the year, with fruits and vegetables showing the biggest seasonal changes, particularly during the third quarter when the monsoon season affects production, supplies and markets. They say governments should take these seasonal and regional price differences into account while designing nutrition programmes, food subsidies and other social protection measures.
Globally, an estimated 645 million people experienced hunger in 2025, equivalent to 7.8 percent of the world’s population. Although this represented a decline of about 14 million people compared with 2024, hunger levels remain higher than those recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic.
An estimated 2.1 billion people, or 25.8 percent of the global population, experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in 2025, while nearly 779 million people continued to face severe food insecurity despite improvements in several regions.
The report says the average global cost of a healthy diet increased to 4.28 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day in 2025, compared with 3.44 PPP dollars in 2021 and 2.94 PPP dollars in 2017, reflecting continued food price inflation.
Despite rising food prices, the number of people unable to afford a healthy diet declined from 2.97 billion in 2021 to an estimated 2.69 billion in 2025, indicating that incomes generally increased faster than food prices in many countries. However, nearly one in every three people worldwide still cannot afford a healthy diet.
According to the report, meat, dairy products, eggs, fruits and vegetables account for most of the cost of a healthy diet, while cereals make up a relatively small share. It recommends improving agricultural productivity, transport systems, storage facilities, cold chains and food supply networks to make nutritious foods more affordable.
The UN agencies also warn that progress towards global nutrition targets remains slow. Only 30.8 percent of children aged six to 23 months receive a minimally diverse diet, while 62.7 percent of women aged 15 to 49 years consume foods from the minimum recommended number of food groups. Anaemia among women continues to rise, and adult obesity increased from 12.1 percent in 2012 to 16.2 percent in 2024.
The report concludes that regular monitoring of food prices across provinces and districts can help governments better target nutrition policies, improve access to affordable healthy diets and reduce regional inequalities in food affordability.