Antigua and Barbuda Exceeds Global Average Cost for Healthy Diet, CARICOM Data Reveals

Eating healthily in the Caribbean comes at a steep price — significantly higher than most of the world. According to Antigua News Room, new data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) shows that across 13 CARICOM member states, the average daily cost of a healthy diet reached PPP $5.81 per person in 2024, placing Antigua and Barbuda and its regional neighbours well above the global average.

The global benchmark stands at PPP $4.46 per person per day. Every one of the 13 CARICOM countries surveyed exceeded that figure — a regional average that sits 30% higher than the worldwide norm. The FAO calculates this cost using the cheapest locally available foods across six nutritional groups: fruits, vegetables, starches, animal-source foods, legumes, and oils.

Guyana recorded the highest cost in the region at PPP $6.83 per person per day, followed by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at $6.43 and Dominica at $6.36. Haiti ($6.21), Suriname ($6.16), and Jamaica ($6.02) also surpassed the CARICOM regional average.

Trinidad and Tobago ($5.56) and The Bahamas ($5.54) fell just below the regional average, while Belize ($4.54), Saint Kitts and Nevis ($5.04), and Saint Lucia ($5.16) recorded the lowest costs in the grouping — though all three still exceeded the global benchmark.

Notably, both agricultural producers and food-importing nations appear at both ends of the cost spectrum. As reported by Antigua News Room, this pattern suggests that domestic food production alone does not determine the affordability of a nutritious diet. Trade logistics, retail market structures, and food import dependency are all likely contributing factors.

The data is sourced from the FAO's FAOSTAT Cost and Affordability of a Healthy Diet (CoAHD) dataset, using 2024 figures released in July 2025. Costs are expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars, an international measure that adjusts for price differences between countries to enable cross-country comparison. PPP figures may not directly correspond to prices found at local retail outlets.