, Columnist
Say Goodbye to Potatoes Being as Cheap as Chips
And say hello to sogflation. Poor weather conditions in Europe are hurting humble crops such as the spud.
Hot potato.
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Last year, the word to describe much of the spike in food prices would have been “heatflation,” as drought and high temperatures affected crop yields around the world, from olive oil in Spain (much to my colleague Javier Blas’s despair) to cabbage in South Korea.
This year we’re facing a different concept, still undeniably linked to the climate crisis. Let’s call it “sogflation.” If heatflation refers to price increases as a result of excessively high temperatures, sogflation is borne out of extreme precipitation.