The Caribbean could face a sharp in­crease in food prices with­in the next three months, with the im­pact like­ly to reach the re­gion soon­er than ex­pect­ed, ac­cord­ing to Pro­fes­sor Wayne Gan­pat.

The for­mer Dean of the Fac­ul­ty of Food and Agri­cul­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies warned that the re­gion has been re­ceiv­ing warn­ing signs since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, cau­tion­ing that a po­ten­tial­ly cat­a­stroph­ic food cri­sis could be on the hori­zon.

Since the pan­dem­ic, sev­er­al geopo­lit­i­cal shocks—in­clud­ing the Rus­sia-Ukraine con­flict, the war in Gaza, and the con­flict in­volv­ing Iran—have dri­ven food prices up­wards.