Food crisis deepens in Peru, more than half of the population lacks enough to eat

Currently, some 16.6 million people, more than half of the population, do not have regular access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food in Peru, despite the fact that the World Bank classifies the country as an upper middle-income economy that can produce all the food it needs.

A 2021 study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) showed that 51 per cent of the population is food insecure and 20% of that group is acutely food insecure.

Fernando Castro Verastegui, FAO project coordinator in Peru, said that "this means that people have reduced the quality of their diet or are eating less than they need".

The agency says that the main cause of this insecurity is a poverty rate that this year has reached a quarter of the population, preventing them from covering their basic food basket.

Faced with this situation, most people have no choice but to alleviate their hunger as best they can, without eating adequate food that contains all the necessary nutrients, such as protein. In parts of the Peruvian Amazon jungle, up to 70% of the population is anaemic.

In the poor, dusty suburb of Chorrillos, one of Lima's slums overlooking the Pacific Ocean, women cook behind the cooker. Among them is Jenny Rojas Chumbe, a community activist and president of the soup kitchen "Ayuda Social".

When COVID-19 hit the country and sent millions of people home and without income, Jenny identified the urgent needs of her community and began collecting food to organise soup kitchens.

These "soup kitchens", as they are known locally, receive donations from food banks as well as other organisations and individuals.

From the 220 meals a day she prepared at the peak of the pandemic, today she still serves about 100 a day, even though many people have returned to work.

"The number of meals we were providing had been reduced to 50 a day because neighbours were doing better in terms of purchasing power. But lately we have increased the meals because the crisis is affecting many people. If you want vegetables, they are too expensive. A kilo of potatoes costs more than three soles (about 80 US cents), a litre of cooking oil costs more than 12 soles (3.15 dollars)," says Jenny.

The rise in potato prices has a real impact, and a powerful symbolic impact in Peru: it is on the shores of Lake Titicaca that potatoes were first grown.

As for meat, chicken is the main source of protein in Peru, but only for those who can afford it. Jenny cooks chicken for her neighbours, "only once or twice a week because it would be out of our budget," she says.

Peru's annual inflation rate for 2022 has remained above 8% in recent months, its highest level in 24 years. Staple foods such as wheat, rice and cooking oil have more than doubled in price.

The soup kitchens were the people's response to the food problem that had existed since before COVID-19, explains Fernando Castro Verástegui. "We had rates of malnutrition and anaemia that had stagnated. The economic, political and environmental problems we were already facing told us that the food situation was at risk. When COVID arrived, it exploded," he said.

Peru was hit hard by the coronavirus. It suffered the highest mortality rate in the world during the pandemic: more than 0.65% of the population succumbed to the virus. In addition, the confinements increased unemployment.

In addition to the recession resulting from the pandemic, inflation, fuelled by the war in Ukraine, weighs heavily on the prospects for recovery.

Castro Verástigui said that Peru is also experiencing price increases as a result of a number of global phenomena, especially fuel inflation.

The FAO also points to government mismanagement, poor eating habits and over-reliance on imported staple foods and fertilisers as additional reasons for Peru's food crisis.

Imported chemical fertilisers cost up to four times more than a year ago, forcing farmers to reduce their use. The fear is that this will affect food production in the coming months and aggravate existing vulnerabilities in the South American country.