A globalised world is, in many ways, a smaller world. When shoppers scour the grocery store aisles in San Francisco, Sydney or Seoul, they may be purchasing different food items, but these days they are suffering from the same sticker shock. Whether due to drought in Australia or an ethanol boom in the US, the effects on food prices are felt in all corners of the world.

In China, soaring food prices have driven inflation to their highest levels in more than a decade, straining household budgets in the world’s most populous country. Dramatic price increases have been chalked up to an unfortunate confluence of factors – supply problems endemic in China’s pork industry, an outbreak of “blue ear” disease on pig farms and to drought and flood-related price hikes. But behind these events, a host of structural problems are contributing to higher prices.