Brazilian barbecues and football: churrasco hit by rising food costs at the worst possible time

14 July 2026

There are two specific times when Brazilians fire up their barbecues – during family gatherings… and when the futebol is on TV.

In Brazil, watching “the world game” usually goes hand in hand with churrasco – a unique style of barbecue that’s woven into Brazilian food culture. And there’s even data that proves it from one of the largest Brazilian food brands, Perdigão. They did a huge social media study which pinpointed exactly when Brazilians post most about their beloved pastime of barbecuing.

Their study analysed Google, TikTok, X, YouTube, Instagram, and news portals to see when people post about churrasco the most – they saw that Sunday was the most popular day especially in combination with gatherings for birthday parties or watching football. But at a time when the world’s biggest football tournament is taking place, the FIFA World Cup, food prices are making Brazilian churrasco more expensive.

More than a meal

“Air fryer churrasco isn’t a churrasco,” says Brazilian Larissa Queiroz Mikael.

“My father would do churrasco every Saturday at home. Churrasco can be a sort of gathering for family, friends, birthdays, any celebration… watching football for example, especially important matches like now with the World Cup.”

The staple of churrasco is beef – beef ribs, ribeye and sirloin (commonly called picanha and favoured most of all). But last month, Bloomberg reported soaring domestic beef prices, which is bad news for churrasco makers: they reported prices for wholesale cow meat recently hit the highest on record for the past 20 years, with picanha prices specifically going up 11% from last year.

And churrasco is a tradition not bound by socioeconomic class: “some people have no money and they still manage to build their own churrasqueira (grill), like it can even be made out of bricks,” says Larissa.

What our data shows

Beyond just beef, WageIndicator's Cost of Living data points to price increases across a broader range of food goods.

The Cost of Living database is able to break down prices into specific categories: housing and utilities, drinking water, phone and internet, clothing, transport, education, healthcare, a provision for unexpected events – and food.

With data backed by real fieldwork, WageIndicator's data collectors permanently and continuously visit local markets and shops to record the actual prices of over 70 food items in close to 200 countries – updated every financial quarter. The result is a ground-level picture of what families actually pay.

In Q2, for a standard Brazilian family buying food (for two adults and two children), the average price they end up paying shows an increase of +2.6% from Q1.

These figures feed directly into WageIndicator's living wage calculations – the minimum a worker needs to earn to cover basic costs for themselves and their family. The data is also collected across a wide range of regions within each country, capturing richer and more diverse information to reflect how prices change depending on where people live and shop.

For Brazil, if high food costs right now weren't enough, more economic trouble could be on the horizon. Scientists are forecasting an exceptionally intense El Niño event in the second half of 2026, one that could rival the most severe on record. This brings drought, which means key crops are threatened, Amazon river levels drop – pushing freight costs up, and hydropower capacity falls. All these factors can combine to hit prices at once.

For now, Brazilian consumers look unlikely to see significant relief anytime soon. WageIndicator's Cost of Living data will be tracking exactly when, and if, that relief arrives in Brazil as well as in other countries across the world.

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