The prices of chocolate, wine and eight other foods will skyrocket for unexpected reasons

Food prices are affected and determined by a number of factors, including the global and national economy, which has been behind recent increases that have hit Britons’ pockets after the past few years of political and economic turmoil.

However, a handful of products are growing at similar, if not more drastic, rates for an entirely different reason. Changing weather patterns, as well as recent disasters and natural phenomena, are affecting the global agricultural sector, affecting the growth, harvest and quantity of certain foods. Unfortunately, the top 10 foods affected by this include a lot of household products.

Coffee

Whether it’s pods, grounds or beans at home or at Price Local, coffee is getting more expensive as continued crop failures choke supplies. A study by Plos Climate showed that rising temperatures in the tropics threaten coffee production and ultimately warned the coffee industry to “expect continued systemic shocks from suboptimal growing conditions”.

Sugar

With the coffee industry struggling, sugar prices have catapulted into 2022 and have stubbornly refused to turn back, while Vesper’s year-end reporter revealed that the sugar market was badly hit by the lowest rainfall India monsoons of 2018. .

In addition, the world’s largest sugar producer, Brazil, suffered devastating frost damage to sugar crops, and droughts in Europe last year also contributed. The price increase has not only affected sugar specifically, but the presence of the sweetener in a multitude of items has caused a general increase in prices.

Chocolate

In addition to the impact of sugar on the price of chocolate, a shortage of cocoa increases the value of sweetness. According to the International Cocoa Organization, global cocoa supplies are expected to drop by almost 11% in the 2023/2024 season due to droughts in West Africa, which supplies about 80% of the world’s cocoa.

Wine

The drought in Europe has had a major impact on the yield and quality of grapes across the continent, and the devastating fires in California in recent years have already affected global wine supplies. Weather factors also affect the taste of wines, with winemakers desperately trying to adapt to the unpredictability of their crops. Surprisingly, a non-climate factor that is also driving up the price of wine is a supply chain problem for the glass bottles and corks used to store them.

Wheat

Heat waves in India and extreme weather in China and the US have seen wheat production fall sharply and caused the price of wheat and wheat products to skyrocket over the past year. This has only been compounded by Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine, which has crippled global shipments by weight, as the two countries supplied a quarter of global wheat in 2019.

Ketchup

Ketchup, salsa and pizza sauces are created largely from tomatoes in California’s Central Valley, which saw a major drop in production due to wildfires and failed to rebound due to record rains last year.

Olive oil

Delicate olive groves were left reeling last year from Mediterranean heatwaves and an ongoing drought in Spain, the biggest producer of olive oil, has seen production drop by 52% in 2023, according to the Olive Press News. Overall, this will undoubtedly lead to an increase in the price of olive oil.

Seafood

The effects of global warming on ocean populations are widely known, but increasing marine heat waves threaten crustaceans, algae and corals in their natural habitat. As a result, oceanic species move to colder waters to adapt, which has seen fisheries decline, while some fish become abundant in regions where they weren’t really seen before.

Sriracha

Drought in Mexico last year affected yields of the iconic red jalapeno pepper used for Sriracha, exacerbating a shortage that had already been simmering for three years and even saw the sauce disappear entirely from some American shelves. The disappearance caused online prices for the sauce to skyrocket to a staggering $124 on Amazon at one point, according to Fodor’s Travels.

Saffron

The world’s most expensive spice is set to get even more expensive as the labor-intensive crop is incredibly temperature sensitive. In Kashmir, India, with saffron production reduced last year due to unseasonal rain and snow, some farmers have experimented with growing saffron indoors to try to save their business.