World's costliest dish: A plate of beans in South Sudan

It may not be unavailability of food but its unaffordability that more often than not causes people to go hungry. A project by UN's World Food Programme (WFP) to compare the price of a simple plate of beans across 33 countries using New York as a base suggests that the most expensive meal is the one that is put together in crisis-stricken South Sudan, where locals need to pay more than what they earn to afford the basic meal.

 

WFP found that the cost of the plate works out to $321.7 for people in South Sudan. In India, 4.5% of daily income goes behind organizing a single meal.

 

1. The price of a basic plate of food in a poorer part of the world was calculated and expressed as a percentage of average daily income

 

2. Then it was scaled up to show what a person in a rich country would have to pay, in proportion to their income, for an equivalent plate of food

 

3. It was found that while a New Yorker might expect to spend just 0.6% of her/his daily income on a simple bean stew, someone in South Sudan would need to spend 155% of their income 4. Or, if a New Yorker had to pay proportionally the same for a plate of beans, it would cost her/him US$321 ^[1][2][3][4]

References

1. ^{^} food (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
2. ^{^} World (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
3. ^{^} plate of beans (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)
4. ^{^} South Sudan (timesofindia.indiatimes.com)