From Flooded Fields to Your Wallet: How Climate Chaos Is Driving Up Food Prices
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A lettuce in Australia once cost A$2.80. After record floods in 2022? It shot up to A$12, and that’s a whopping 300% increase. Fast food giant KFC even swapped out lettuce for cabbage. In Rand terms, that’s like going from R33 to nearly R140 for a single lettuce.
This isn’t an isolated case. A new study by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and the European Central Bank has linked global food price hikes directly to climate change. Between 2022 and 2024, 16 extreme weather events, from US droughts to Asian heatwaves, pushed prices for everyday food through the roof.
Some jaw-dropping stats:
Vegetable prices in the US jumped by over 80% after severe droughts in California and a hurricane in Florida.
China saw a 40% surge in vegetable prices during a heatwave hitting 46°C.
South Korean cabbage rose 70%, pushing up the cost of kimchi, a national staple.
In the UK, households paid an extra £361, that’s over R8,500, on groceries in just two years, due to climate-related crop failures.
What about South Africa?
We’re not immune. Droughts in the Western Cape, floods in KZN, and unpredictable seasons across the country are already shrinking yields and raising prices on staples like maize, potatoes, and vegetables. For South Africans living on tight margins, even a small spike at the tills is felt deeply.
Why it matters for accountants
Rising food prices are more than a consumer issue, they’re a business risk and a macroeconomic headache. Climate shocks are already:
Eating into disposable income
Raising input costs for retail and hospitality, and
Fueling inflation.
If your clients are in farming, food, logistics, or even retail, they’ll need to rethink their risk and supply assumptions. And yes, climate reporting just got a lot more real.
So, what’s the solution?
The study says the only long-term fix is cutting emissions and preparing smarter, with early warning systems, better irrigation, and policies to shield consumers from volatile prices.
But for now, accountants should brace for more climate-driven cost crunches in budgets, forecasts, and client strategies.
Article Source: Moneyweb
