Extreme weather is causing food price shocks around the world

Global cocoa prices surged 280% in April 2024, a study found, after a blistering heatwave in Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana. And global coffee prices spiked 55% in August 2024 after a 2023 drought in Brazil that climate change had made up to 30 times more likely. In Japan, rice prices were 48% higher in September 2024 after an August heatwave. And in India, the price of onions rose 89% after a heatwave in May 2024. Many of these weather events were so extreme, says the study, that ‘they exceeded all historical precedent prior to 2020’.