In El Salvador, a basic food basket closed at a record price of over $240 last year.

A healthy diet in Central America and Mexico costs an average of $3.47, a price limit for nearly 43.2 million people in the region, according to a report released Wednesday by five UN agencies. I am warning you.

The panorama of food and nutrition insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean shows that under the shadow of a possible global recession in 2023, more people will fall below the poverty line and will be unable to reach the minimum food for development. Enhanced warning about risk of inaccessibility. Restrictions on trade in agricultural inputs will be maintained.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), one of the agencies producing the report, said the cost of a healthy diet is calculated based on the price of the 11 cheapest foods that provide 2,330 calories, including starch. I explained. , animal origin, vegetables, seeds, oils.

According to the report, Latin America and the Caribbean have the highest cost of accessing healthy food in the world, up to $3.89 a day, even higher than the global average of $3.54. 131.3 million people cannot assume this value.

That value comes first and foremost from the Caribbean region, where a healthy diet costs up to $4.23 per day. The average cost in South America is $3.61 and Mesoamerica (Central America and Mexico) is $3.47. However, this last data does not include El Salvador and Guatemala.

DEMs

Profile of El Salvador.

The document provides data on the impact of a series of crises, including pandemics and inflation, in El Salvador with updated figures for 2021. to 3 million people.

Of those, 14.7% had reached the threshold of severe anxiety and either had to sell something to get food or were without food for some time.

Meanwhile, the prevalence of malnutrition fell to 7.7% between 2019 and 2021, down from 8.3% recorded over the previous three years.

Malnutrition rates affected 7.7% of El Salvador’s population between 2019 and 2021, while stunting in children under five will affect 11.2% of this segment in 2020. rice field.