2 new charts - Sugar content & food price index
2 new charts - Sugar content & food price index
Sweeter than sugar and costlier than caviar...
Sugary drinks have become more expensive since 2016, with a sugar tax law introduced in the UK to limit sugar consumption. So much sugar is in my drink today? Elsewhere, global food prices are seemingly always on the rise - let’s take a look at how specific food types have risen over time.
Chart #1 - The UK sugar tax law (or Soft Drinks Levy) has already led to over 50% of manufacturers to reduce the sugar content in their drinks since 2016 - a reduction of around 45 million kg of sugar per year. Despite this, many drinks still have a substantial amount of sugar in per serving, since the levy only applies .
Energy drinks are particularly sugary, with Rockstar having almost 4g of sugar per ounce (~13.3g/100ml) - that’s 63g of sugar per serving! Other famous soft drinks like Fanta and Sprite are only marginally better, at 3.67g/oz (~12.4g/100ml) and 3.17g/oz (~10.7g/100ml) respectively.
On the other side of the scale, drinks like Diet Coke have 0g/oz of sugar but replace it with artificial sweeteners to retain the taste.
Today’s Genuinely Impactful startups:
Dr Wills: Why stop at sugary drinks - Dr Wills manufactures sauces and dressings using only natural ingredients, nothing artificial.
AllPlants: An ethical, sustainable, vegan food subscription box. What more could you ask for?
Chart #2 - Food price indexes are a way to standardise the price of different types of food, with the FAO using 2014-16 prices indexed to 100. Since 1990, every category has risen substantially, and some of the most drastic price movements coincide with major global events.
For example, from the early 2000s up until 2008 the price of most categories started rising sharply. This peaked when the Great Recession hit, with prices tumbling down as quickly as they shot up. Sugar is a great example of this, with the nominal sugar price index starting at a trough of 62.4 before peaking at 160.90, then crashing back down to 83.2 all in the space of 8 years.
Interestingly, from 1990 until 2008 real prices were consistently above nominal prices. Between 2008 and 2015 nominal prices actually rose above real prices due to the extremely low (and even negative) inflation that occurred during the recession years. Real prices then rose back above nominal prices - until the pandemic market instability caused nominal prices to leapfrog real prices once again.
See you next Wednesday with more charts on the Internet!
Created by Miguel
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