Daniel Wolfram
El Niño is making the UN and other experts sound the alarm about rising prices of essential food groups.
The global weather phenomenon, El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), has spent the summer causing drought, heatwaves, and now a warmer than usual, but very wet, autumn.
Climate change is not just having an impact on the weather, but also on food prices.
There are now multiple warnings that the “Super” El Niño could heavily affect daily lives through even more expensive food prices and the rise in agricultural costs.
Food prices are already rising due to El Niño
According to new data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), staple foods have become one percent more expensive on average this year compared to 2025.
This is due to the various wars in the Middle East that drive uncertainty, as well as “concerns about the potential impacts of persistent hot and dry weather on crop yields in the European Union and of El Niño-related weather conditions.”
Matin Qaim, a professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Bonn in Germany, has the same conclusion as the UN. Qaim predicts that El Niño will disrupt agricultural production around the world, especially in Asia and Africa, and drive up prices.
In an interview with Newsweek, he says, “I am really concerned especially about the poorest of the poor, who have to spend a large part of their income on food anyway and will be able to afford less with much higher prices.”
Which foods could become more expensive?
According to Newsweek, experts have identified various food groups that are in danger of becoming more expensive over the next quarter.
Goods like chocolate, coffee, and olive oil are all expected to see a spike in cost due to a production shortage. This is due to a whiplash of alternating droughts and heavy rain.
Amanda Maycock, a climate scientist and professor at the University of Leeds, explains that cocoa and coffee are also expected to be “affected by changes in both the destruction of crops from heavy rain and poor yields due to droughts.”
El Niño has cost European farmers billions of euros
Meanwhile, El Niño has cost farmers all around Europe up to 17 billion euros due to the extreme weather over the last few months.
According to the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), EU Commissioner Christophe Hansen announced that this European summer with extreme heat, drought, and wildfires has cost the European Union’s agricultural sector an estimated 14–17 billion euros.
To avoid that happening again next summer, the EU is announcing a contingency plan for preserving more water, so farmers will be able to get through the season without losing as much income.
Right now, only 12% of all agricultural production in Europe is insured against climate change damage, according to Hansen.
