<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/jan/05/climate-crisis-drought-sugar-cost-impact>
"The climate crisis has been previously identified as a threat to coffee and
beer, and its impact could now be stretching to another of life’s joys:
dessert.
The global cost of sugar has surged to its highest level since 2011 following
concerns of underproduction rates from India, which has experienced an extreme
dry spell that has threatened crops, and Thailand, which is facing a severe
drought. The two countries are the largest exporters of sugar, after Brazil.
Rising global temperatures – 2023 is expected to be widely confirmed as the
hottest year ever recorded – are fueling droughts and other extreme weather
that affect food yields, including that of sugar. The price hike has already
started to filter down to chocolate, sweets and other desserts.
US consumers saw prices for sugar and sweets rise by 8.9% in 2023 and a 5.6%
increase is expected this year, according to the US Department of Agriculture,
which is well above historical averages. In November, Mondelēz, a sprawling
business that includes Cadbury, Oreos and Toblerone among its brands, warned of
price increases for its products.
There will have to be a “straightforward price increase” for consumers due to
the high cost of sugar and cocoa, Dirk Van de Put, the chief executive of
Mondelēz, told
Bloomberg.
Large corporations have a range of motivations for price increases, cautioned
Gernot Wagner, a climate economist at the Columbia University business school,
but the underlying threat posed by climate change cannot be denied.
“Extreme weather is affecting food – a year ago it was avocados, now it’s
sugar,” Wagner said. “Climate-flation is a thing and it’s getting worse. It’s
convenient for the owner of Oreos to point to climate change for a price
increase but it’s also understandable.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
