Cost of legumes, nuts and seeds (PPP dollars per person per day): Seychelles Analysis

Published 2026-10-18 · 24Peaks Research

Cost of legumes, nuts and seeds (PPP dollars per person per day): Seychelles Analysis

The cost of legumes, nuts and seeds in purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars per person per day measures how much a representative daily serving of these protein-rich foods would cost a consumer, adjusted for local price levels, in a given economy. It is a useful lens on food affordability and dietary quality rather than a simple retail price. Seychelles, a small island economy with high import dependence, appears in the latest available data as part of the 2021 FAO_CAHD cross-country set, where its profile is shaped by remoteness and import costs rather than by domestic agricultural supply.

Definition and methodology

The indicator is drawn from FAO's food price and affordability workstreams and is expressed in PPP dollars per person per day. Several features of the methodology matter for interpretation.

• Pricing basis: the cost reflects the price of legumes, nuts and seeds needed for a defined daily intake, not the cost of a household's entire consumption basket.
• PPP adjustment: prices are converted into purchasing power parity terms so that comparisons across economies reflect real cost differences rather than exchange-rate effects alone.
• Dataset scope: the FAO_CAHD dataset used here covers 162 economies, with the year range limited to 2021 for this indicator.
• Affordability context: because the measure is anchored to a daily intake, it can be compared directly with income measures such as daily PPP income or poverty lines.
• Food group definition: legumes, nuts and seeds form a single food group in the classification, combining pulses, oilseeds and tree nuts, which means country-level results blend several distinct commodity markets.

For Seychelles specifically, the methodology tends to amplify structural factors: almost all of these products are imported, so transport, port handling and small-volume retail add to the underlying international price. The PPP conversion partly offsets general price-level differences, but it does not remove the island's logistical cost premium. Users should also note that the dataset covers only one year (2021), so the indicator is best treated as a cross-sectional snapshot rather than a trend series.

Why investors care

For investors, the cost of legumes, nuts and seeds is a proxy for both food affordability and the structure of a small import-dependent economy. Four channels are particularly relevant.

• Consumer purchasing power: when this cost is high relative to incomes, households shift toward cheaper staples, which affects demand for packaged foods, retail formats and food-service operators.
• Import exposure: a high PPP cost in an island economy signals a large import bill for shelf-stable protein foods, making the trade balance and shipping costs a first-order variable for food distributors and retailers.
• Inflation transmission: global commodity prices for pulses and nuts pass through to domestic shelves with a lag, so this indicator helps frame food-inflation risk in small open economies.
• Policy and subsidy risk: governments facing affordability pressure may adjust tariffs, VAT treatment or food-import rules, which changes margins for importers and distributors.

Seychelles is a useful case for portfolio managers with exposure to Indian Ocean tourism-linked consumption, food import logistics and regional distribution businesses. The same indicator also informs development-finance and impact-investment theses around dietary quality and food security, since legumes, nuts and seeds are among the cheapest sources of protein and micronutrients in most diets. Because the series here is a single-year observation, investors should pair it with trade statistics, tourism arrival data and consumer price inflation to build a forward view.

Regional context for Africa

Across Africa, the cost of legumes, nuts and seeds varies widely, and the variation is driven more by market structure than by agricultural potential. Many mainland producers benefit from domestic pulse and groundnut production, which moderates consumer prices; landlocked countries face transport costs that push costs up; and island states such as Seychelles, Mauritius and Cabo Verde sit at the high end because nearly all supply is shipped in.

The 162-economy scope of the FAO_CAHD dataset makes it possible to place an African economy against both regional peers and global benchmarks. Within Africa, the key dividing lines are import dependence, port efficiency, and whether local production of beans, groundnuts, cowpeas or sesame is sufficient to supply the domestic market. Urbanisation also matters: city households buy more processed and packaged versions of these foods, which raise the per-day cost relative to rural, market-based purchasing.

For Seychelles, the regional story is one of smallness. Its population base limits scale economies in importing and retailing, and its tourism-heavy economy links food demand to visitor numbers as well as resident incomes. That makes the country a high-cost, high-import-intensity case rather than a representative African average.

Outlook and limitations

The outlook for Seychelles on this indicator depends on three forces: global prices for pulses and nuts, freight and port costs in the Indian Ocean, and domestic policy on food imports. As of the latest available year, the data offer only a snapshot, so the most defensible reading is structural: an island economy with limited arable capacity will remain a price-taker on these products, and affordability will track shipping costs and import policy more closely than local harvests. Any shift toward regional sourcing, bulk procurement or tariff relief would be visible first in this cost measure.

The limitations of the indicator should be stated plainly.

• Single-year coverage: the dataset spans 2021 only for this indicator, so it cannot support trend or volatility analysis.
• Aggregation: legumes, nuts and seeds are combined, which masks very different price dynamics for, say, dried beans versus cashews.
• PPP sensitivity: results depend on the PPP conversion used and on the underlying price survey, which can differ from actual retail shelf prices.
• Consumption assumptions: the daily intake basis is a modelled standard, not an observed household diet.
• Small-market noise: for a country of Seychelles' size, a few importers or retail chains can move measured prices more than in larger markets.

FAQ

What does this indicator actually measure?

It estimates the cost, in PPP dollars, of the legumes, nuts and seeds needed for one person for one day. It is an affordability measure, not a retail price index.

Which year does the Seychelles data refer to?

The FAO_CAHD dataset covers 2021 for this indicator, as of the latest available year. There is no multi-year series in this dataset, so trend claims should be avoided.

Why is Seychelles likely to be a high-cost case?

The country is a small island economy that imports most of these foods, so freight, port handling and small-volume retail add to prices. PPP adjustment softens but does not eliminate that premium.

Can I compare Seychelles with mainland African countries?

Yes, the dataset's 162-economy coverage supports comparison, but the comparison should be framed around import dependence and market size rather than treated as a like-for-like benchmark.

How should investors use a single-year indicator?

As a structural signal of affordability and import exposure, combined with trade, inflation and tourism data. It is not suitable on its own for forecasting price movements.

Compare Seychelles against peer economies and the full 162-economy dataset on the 24Peaks workbench.