Key food imports worth £18bn are at risk from the heat stress that has plagued Mediterranean farm workers, new analysis shows.
Research published this week by the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit revealed significant increases in the impact of rising temperatures on agricultural workers in the region.
The number of hours lost from heat stress in the region had jumped by 108% from 1990 to 2025, the ECIU revealed, with some 2.8 billion potential working hours lost to heat stress last year.
France, Spain and Italy alone account for more than four-fifths (81%) of the value of UK food imports from the Mediterranean. Yet all three countries were seeing rising loses in working hours due to extreme heat, with hours lost increasing by 46% in France and 30% in Spain in the decade to 2025, the thinktank revealed.
This potentially placed up to a quarter of the UK’s food imports at greater risk, from fruit to veg, olive oil and wine.
It comes after August 2026 was recorded as the world’s joint hottest month on record.
“As these extremes hit food crops, fuelling shortages and driving up food prices, heat stress is a growing problem for people working in agriculture, adding another threat to food security,” the ECIU warned.
“We’ve become used to talking about the impact of climate change on crops, but food production depends on people too,” said ECIU senior economist Chris Jaccarini.
“The growing toll which extreme heat is taking on the people working outdoors to plant, tend and harvest our food is becoming increasingly clear. It poses not only a threat to their health and wellbeing but also creates another risk to the food security we all rely on.”
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