Climate Catastrophe Lands on Your Table --- Wine, olive oil, coffee and cocoa suffer as weather gets intense; 'a little apocalyptic'

"As the world warms, extreme weather is disrupting the production of some of life's great comforts: wine, olive oil, coffee and cocoa.

Heat waves and untimely rain in West Africa have sent cocoa prices to record levels this year, causing chocolate makers to raise prices. Traders are hoarding coffee after a severe drought in Vietnam, the world's second-largest producer, pushing prices of the Robusta variety to a 45-year high. The more-coveted Arabica beans have also recently become costlier.

In Italy, heavy rain caused a surge in grape-devouring mildew -- one of a number of weather events that sank global wine production to its lowest levels since 1961. The price of olive oil has doubled in the past two years as heat and drought have baked groves around the Mediterranean.

Some of these crops are concentrated in one or two regions, which means wonky weather in one part of the world can have a dizzying impact on global prices.

Joe Shaw squeezes lemon juice and drizzles vinegar on his salad, skipping the olive oil now that a half-liter costs $10, about twice the price of a year or two ago.

"It does feel a little apocalyptic," said the 28-year-old, an exhibition assistant for an art gallery in London.

Italian chef Francesco Mazzei, who runs a restaurant at Corinthia Palace, a luxury hotel on the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, says the trick is knowing which dishes can be made with olive-oil alternatives -- like pasta Bolognese, to which he adds richness with pancetta, a type of pork. But for a caprese salad, he said, there is no good Plan B.

"You have to use extra virgin olive oil, you cannot put avocado oil or something like that," Mazzei said.

Around the world, regions famed for delicacies are struggling to adapt. Land suitable for growing coffee, which thrives in cool, higher elevations, will decline in coming decades, scientific studies show.

Just try getting a cup of java from the Indonesian island of Java. Dandy Dharmawan, who buys coffee from farmers in the Southeast Asian country and processes the beans for cafes in Indonesia and abroad, says worsening yields have lifted prices by 50% over the past three years.

"There's going to be a point where coffee prices will keep rising and coffee drinkers will be pushed toward substitute products that are more affordable," Dharmawan said.

In India, coffee grower Nishant Gurjer has been hit by a double whammy. Unusually heavy rains last year split the outer skins of his coffee beans, hurting the flavor of his early-year harvest. Then an overpowering heat wave in April withered new coffee flowers, which he says will lower next year's production by a quarter.

"Events are getting more intense," said Gurjer, whose family has been growing coffee for more than 200 years.

Scientists say climate change makes heat waves more common -- and more acute.

Coffee traders in drought-hit Vietnam are hoarding beans, holding out for even higher prices, said Debbie Wei Mullin, chief executive of Los Angeles-based Copper Cow Coffee, which sells beans from Vietnam to retail chains like Whole Foods, Costco and Target.

"It used to feel like an unlimited supply in Vietnam," Mullin said.

Farmers around the world are trying to adapt by installing irrigation systems and planting new drought-resistant versions of crops. Adaptations can sometimes cause other problems, said Cornelis van Leeuwen, a professor of viticulture at Bordeaux Sciences Agro. Irrigation risks draining aquifers. Less-dense planting gives each vine has more soil to extract water from -- but means fewer grapes.

Other wine regions have it even harder than Bordeaux. That has inspired some winemakers to venture north in search of milder weather. K Felix G Ahrberg worked in wineries in New Zealand, France, South Africa and elsewhere. In 2017, he decided to get "ahead of the game," he said, and return home to Sweden. He now works with grapes grown a couple of hours' drive from Gothenburg in the south of the country.

"It's burning in Bordeaux and hailing in Italy," he said.

Olives, classically Mediterranean, are also beginning a march northward. Agro Rebels, an Austrian research group, is working with farmers who have planted around 5,000 olive trees so far. Austria's climate is beginning to resemble that typical of its neighbors on the other side of the Alps.

Olive trees, like coffee and cocoa trees, take years to reach maturity. Meanwhile, olive oil will be more expensive -- and potentially less tasty. German consumer group Stiftung Warentest said in March its test of 23 olive oils found that the average quality had dropped compared with previous studies." [1]

1. World News: Climate Change Lands on Your Table --- Wine, olive oil, coffee and cocoa suffer as weather gets intense; 'a little apocalyptic'. Emont, Jon.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 12 June 2024: A.18.