Climate crisis is hiking food prices in Africa

South Korean cabbage, Australian lettuce, Japanese rice, Brazilian coffee and Ghanaian cocoa are among the many foods that have been hit by price hikes following extreme climate events since 2022, a team of international scientists has found, reports Al Jazeera.

The research released on Monday cites, among other examples, a 280 percent spike in global cocoa prices in April 2024, following a heat wave in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, and a 300 percent jump in lettuce prices in Australia after floods in 2022.

In the vast majority of cases, the increase in prices came soon after heat waves, including a 70 percent increase in cabbage prices in South Korea in September 2024, a 48 percent increase in rice prices in Japan in September 2024, and an 81 percent increase in potato prices in India in early 2024.

Other price increases were linked to drought, such as a 2023 drought in Brazil that preceded a 55 percent increase in global coffee prices the following year, and a 2022 drought in Ethiopia that came before overall food prices there increased by 40 percent in 2023.

The research, published by six European research organizations along with the European Central Bank, was released before the United Nations Food Systems Summit, which will be co-hosted by Ethiopia and Italy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from July 27 to July 29.