The rapidly increasing cost of food worldwide is now impacting the cruise shipping industry, figures released by the 3 largest companies in the business have shown.
In the 12 months to November 30, 2019 (the end of the final financial year prior to the COVID crisis), Carnival Corporation carried a total of 12.87M passengers (mainly by its largest brand CCL-Carnival Cruise Line) and paid US$1.08 billion for food, which makes US$84 per passenger. However, during the first quarter of its present financial year, the cruise company carried 1.01M passengers, but its food bill amounted to US$136M, equal to US$136 per passenger.
RCG-Royal Caribbean Group carried 6.55M passengers in 2019 and that year its food bill came to a total of US$584M, which was equal to US$89 per passenger. This increased to US$136 per guest in the first quarter of 2022 when RCG carried ~734,000 passengers and paid US$100M for food.
NCLH-Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings showed a steeper increase. In 2019, the NCLH's ships carried 2.69M passengers and it paid US$223M for food, equal to US$83 per passenger. During 2022-Q1, the per guest food cost had increased to US$204 as NCLH carried 191,000 passengers and paid US$39M for food.