Easter chocolate: cocoa price up a third as extreme weather and climate change bite

“Chocolate is just one of many foods on our supermarket shelves where British consumers are feeling the pinch, as climate change and extreme weather push prices up and up. We’re importing less but paying more for it – that’s hurting West African cocoa farmers, UK chocolate businesses and British consumers out buying their eggs for loved ones ahead of Easter.
 
“Until we reach net zero emissions extreme weather will continue to get worse and worse, threatening our food security both overseas and at home, from rice and bananas to broccoli and potatoes. Following the second worst harvest on record for England [5], it’s clear that farmers here increasingly need support to continue growing our food, as will those abroad through UK climate finance which is already helping cocoa farmers in places like Côte d’Ivoire.”
 
Cocoa is just one of many commodities threatened by worsening climate change around the world [6]. The UK imports two fifths [7] of its food from overseas – including many staples like rice, bananas and tea, which we cannot simply grow at home. Extreme heat, drought, fires and floods are hitting crop harvests, quality and fuelling plant diseases. In 2022, 16% of our food – worth £8 billion – came from the countries most vulnerable and least resilient to these climate impacts. Climate change poses a clear and rising threat to our food security, and has already added some £360 to the average household food bill across 2022 and 2023 [8].
 
Nations meeting in Baku for last year’s UN climate summit, COP29, acknowledged the rising cost of climate impacts, and agreed to at least-treble climate finance provided to support poorer nations to adapt.
 
The UK funds programmes to help people, including farmers, to adapt through its international climate finance. This includes in Côte d’Ivoire, recognising the value of food production in that country, as well as to UK chocolatiers and consumers. One project supports Ivorian farmers to make informed decisions on the best ways to adapt production, building resilience to climate change into supply chains, as well as fostering collaboration at all levels in the industry. Another project targets deforestation and establishes agroforestry across thousands of hectares, protecting cocoa plantations from extreme temperatures as well as biodiversity.
 
This is just one of the many ways that the UK supports our food producers around the world. Analysis late last year [9] showed that we have co-invested in at least 348 projects supporting overseas farmers struggling with climate extremes. This is alongside other major economies, like Germany and France, through the six main multilateral climate funds. Support spans 111 countries, 84 of which (76%) grow food sold on UK supermarket shelves – including, for example, Colombia which grows around a third (30%) of the UK’s bananas.
 
However, global economic turmoil and increasing demands on spending for other aspects of national security, like defence, have constrained overseas assistance budgets. The UK government recently announced cuts, as did several other European nations, whilst the US government has gutted USAID.