05/10/2026
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PAANO NA LANG ANG KAPE? CHOCOLATE?
Your morning coffee and your favorite dessert may become more expensive as a strong El Niño looms, the United Nations warned.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said global food prices are already rising due to geopolitical tensions and trade barriers.
With the expected strengthening of El Niño, FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero said the combined effects could further drive up prices and strain supply chains.
"My view right now is that we are moving slowly towards a food crisis that will be hitting us at the end of this year, beginning of next year. How deep it is will depend a lot on the additional factor of El Niño," Torero said in a report by CNN.
Coffee- and palm oil–producing countries are particularly vulnerable, as they are more exposed to El Niño’s impacts due to their geography.
Major coffee producers include Brazil and Vietnam, while palm oil is largely produced in parts of Asia and is widely used in food, cosmetics, and biofuels.
Christopher Barrett, a professor of food and agricultural economics at Cornell University, said food prices typically rise during El Niño events and tend to increase further as the phenomenon intensifies.
Given forecasts that this year’s El Niño could be among the strongest on record, Barrett said the impact on food prices could be "crazy big," hitting the global economy at a "bad time."
