Key Message Update: Worsening sociopolitical and security conditions, impacting prices and availability of basic food products, further deteriorated food security in Haiti

This Key Message Update covers March 2024, the month Haiti's security crisis broke into a supply crisis. From the beginning of March the security situation in the capital worsened sharply with intensified armed gang violence, the looting of warehouses and of public and private establishments, and the forced closure of ports and airports. Those events halted imports, including food, reducing market supplies and pushing up staple prices, while also damaging livelihoods and raising fuel prices. FEWS NET therefore expected the number of households in Crisis (IPC Phase 3) and Emergency (IPC Phase 4) in March to increase beyond the previous forecast, and stated that the extent was still being assessed, with a revised analysis of both current and projected periods to appear in the April report.

It warned that if socio-political actors failed to resolve the crisis, by appointing representatives to the executive and by reducing the reach of armed gangs, food insecurity could deteriorate further and the population in need grow again in April. Since 5 March 2024 the country's largest seaport had received no ships, according to the Caribbean Port Service reported by Le Nouvelliste; as a net food importer Haiti is particularly exposed to dysfunctional ports and airports. The upward trend in food prices seen in February continued into March despite falling annual inflation.

Rice, the most widely consumed staple, had already risen almost 6 percent between January and February, and although March price collection was incomplete, traders had raised the price of a 25 kg bag of imported rice above average in anticipation of restocking difficulties. Against the five-year average, February prices of all monitored products were atypically high, exceeding 75 percent for vegetable oil and 100 percent for imported and local rice, maize grain and beans. Below-average rainfall with irregular spatial and temporal distribution over the preceding three months, combined with inadequate support for decapitalised farmers and high input costs, delayed and reduced soil preparation and sowing for the spring season.