Convergence in Global Food Demand and Delivery

By Anita Regmi, Hiroyuki Takeshima, and Laurian Unnevehr

Economic Research Report No. (ERR-56) 39 pp, March 2008

Using food expenditures and food sales data over 1990-2004, this report examines whether food consumption and delivery trends are converging across 47 high- and middle-income countries. Middle-income countries, such as China and Mexico, appear to be following trends in high-income countries, measured across several dimensions of food system growth and change. Convergence is apparent in most important food expenditure categories and in indicators of food system modernization such as supermarket and fast-food sales.

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Keywords: food expenditure, food delivery, food demand convergence, retail food sales, foodservice sales, food label claims, supermarket sales, fast-food sales, global food market, ERS, USDA

In this report ...

Chapters are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.

• Report summary, 117 kb.

• Abstract, Acknowledgments, and Contents, 81kb.
• Summary, 53 kb.
• Introduction, 52 kb.
• Background, 103 kb.
• Data and Methodology, 182 kb.
• Results, 232 kb.
• Conclusions, 50 kb.
• References, 131 kb.
• Appendix A—Details of Convergence Regression Results for Food Expenditure Categories, 315 kb.
• Appendix B—Euromonitor International, 94 kb.
• Appendix C—Product Label Data, 60 kb.

• Entire report, 798 kb.

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Updated date: March 17, 2008