Britons have been warned to expect rising food prices as the world braces for an unprecedented El Nino weather event, which the Met Office says will be the largest since the 19th century. Imported products including fruit, coffee, tea and rice are among the most at risk.
Unprecedented weather event
The event is declared when sea temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific reach 0.5C above the long-term average. Sea conditions will exceed the average by more than 3C in the coming months, creating a heightened risk of drought in the tropics and parts of Africa and Australia, while northwestern Europe, including the UK, experiences wet and stormy conditions.
Vulnerable products
Gareth Redmond-King, head of the international programme at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), told Sky News that particularly vulnerable products included bananas, grapes, raspberries, strawberries and citrus fruits. Around a quarter of the UK's food by value and a third by volume comes from continents such as Asia, Africa and the Americas, which are set to be worst hit by El Nino.
Global temperatures and UK impact
The weather phenomenon is also expected to further push up global temperatures already driven by human-made climate change, with 2027 forecast to be the hottest year on record for the world. It comes after much of the UK was hit by a summer of droughts and heatwaves, delivering the worst harvest in records stretching back decades. El Nino is expected to increase the likelihood of wetter, stormier conditions in the country in the coming autumn and early winter.
Professor Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the Met Office, said: "We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event. I have never seen an El Nino signal this intense in our forecasts."
