How climate change is raising your grocery bill

Researchers have traced price jumps to unprecedented extreme weather conditions

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BARCELONA - A 300 per cent spike in Australian lettuce prices. A 50 per cent rise for European olive oil and 80 per cent for US vegetables.

Researchers from the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the European Central Bank have traced back those price jumps to extreme weather they say is linked to climate change.

The group analysed 16 weather events around the world between 2022 and 2024.

Many were so unusual that a given region had experienced nothing like it prior to 2020, according to the analysis, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters on July 21 in Europe.

"Unprecedented conditions are set to become increasingly common across the world," the study's authors said.

"At the same time, new records for extreme conditions will continue to be set, further from those to which agricultural production and economic systems are currently adapted."

Climate change brings with it higher temperatures and extreme rain, which can lower yields and make the crops that are harvested more expensive.

British households' food bill, for instance, was £361 (S$622) more in 2022 and 2023 due to climate change, according to estimates by the non-profit Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.

Consumers globally say they are feeling the effects of climate change on their grocery bills, making food unaffordable for some and posing a challenge for central bankers trying to tame inflation.