News about El Niño

FAO chief economist Máximo Torero warned food inflation could intensify late this year and persist into 2027 due to shipping disruptions, expensive farm inputs and El Niño. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 136 points in September, up 1.5% from August and 5.8% from a year earlier, though still 15.1% below its March 2022 peak. In the U.S., grocery prices fell 0.1% in September while overall consumer prices rose 0.6% and reached an annual rate of 3.7%. FAO forecast a 2026 cereal harvest of 2.979 billion metric tons, 2.1% below the previous year's record. The U.S. Climate Prediction Center put the probability of a strong-to-very-strong El Niño lasting through January–March 2027 at greater than 83%.

FAO chief economist Maximo Torero warned that global food inflation is poised to accelerate in the coming months and persist into 2027, as war-related shipping disruptions and El Niño-driven drought squeeze cereal supplies. Rice prices in Indonesia hit record highs, bread in Egypt rose by a quarter, and sugar in India reached a record after the weakest monsoon in more than a decade. The World Bank found that food prices in the September quarter outpaced headline inflation in 22% of the 150 countries it analysed, up from 14% in the previous quarter. The FAO Food Price Index averaged 136 points in September, its highest since November 2022, and the world's poorest consumers are being hit hardest.

Global food inflation is likely to accelerate in the coming months and could last well into 2027, driven by two supply shocks. War-related shipping disruptions are slowing deliveries, while El Niño drought is hurting harvests and squeezing cereal supplies. Vulnerable consumers face even more pressure because food takes up a large share of their income. Early signs are already visible: Indonesia's rice price is at a record high due to late rains, Egypt's bread price has risen 25%, and India's sugar price is the highest ever after its weakest monsoon in more than ten years cut output. The article argues these cases share one problem: staple-food systems are highly sensitive to climate shocks and supply-chain stress.