Pakistan’s Food Crisis Deepens, Families Cut Essential Consumption

Pakistani households are struggling as food prices surge, forcing them to drastically cut back on essential items like milk, meat, wheat, rice and tea, according to a report based on official statistics. Families are now buying smaller portions and replacing pricey products with cheaper alternatives, altering their daily diets. Official data from Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reveals that consumption of key foods has dropped over the past six years, from 2018-19 to 2024-25.

The trend suggests that inflation is having a negative impact not just on finances, but on the quantity and quality of food consumed by people.

More and more families are prioritizing immediate needs and spending less on relatively expensive foods. Food insecurity has worsened, with the proportion of households unable to afford adequate food rising from 15.92 percent in 2018-19 to 24.35 percent in 2024-25. Additionally, the share of households facing severe food shortages more than doubled, from 2.37 percent to 5.04 percent.

Despite this, food insecurity does not necessarily mean that every household is starving or malnourished. It indicates difficulty in consistently obtaining adequate and nutritious food. Other factors like changes in household income, food prices, preferences and substitution patterns need to be taken into account when examining the rise in ghee consumption, which increased by 81 percent from 690 grams to 1.25 kilograms per month.

Yet, this data alone cannot prove that inflation caused the increase. Urban families are also affected, with food insecurity being more severe in rural areas, but not entirely absent in urban regions. Pakistan thus faces a challenge beyond ensuring food availability; it must also focus on making food more affordable to prevent households from further straining their already tight budgets.