How Increasing Weather Disruption is Affecting Supply Chains

As floods, storms and late-season tropical systems increase, the impact on logistics can no longer be ignored.

What were once classed as isolated incidents are now becoming regular disruptions, impacting the supply chain and causing issues for the logistics sector.

Businesses now need to take the steps to prepare for these events, in order to build resilience and remain steady during weather extremes.

Rising supply chain volatility

According to a report by Metro, weather disruption is intensifying across global supply chains, with volatility increasing in frequency, severity and geographic reach. Now, it is considered a threat to the reliability of the logistics sector. 

Storms in South and Southeast Asia, flooding across the UK and Europe and drought and storms affecting North and Central America have lead to delays, closures and disruption. Multi-day port closures have occurred, such as the Port of Holyhead in Wales, delays to export manufacturing have taken place and inland transport disruption has risen due to weather concerns.

Congestion around major gateways and extended cross-border trucking times rose due to to slowed containerised export movements due to floods and landslides across Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand in November. Extreme weather events are set to increase in frequency as global temperatures rise, warns climate scientists, meaning that supply chain turbulence could grow to a constant disrupter.

According to a report by DP World, in the past three years, 93% of cargo owners across the perishables sector have experienced climate-related disruption. 76% faced climate-related crop shortages, 35% were affected by the Panama Canal drought and 27% faced issues due to low levels in the Rhine. 

"Climate volatility is reshaping how food moves across borders,” says Alfred Whitman, Global Vice President of Perishables and Agriculture at DP World.

“The sector is feeling the pressure more often and with less warning. Traditional supply routes are being upended, forcing producers to build resilience in real time. What’s needed now is earlier insight into risks, more predictable movement across regions and stronger cold chain infrastructure.”

Impact of disruption

According to WWF, 2025 saw the driest and hottest spring and summer in more than 100 years within the UK, impacting yields of key ingredients such as wheat. Global supply chain disruptions for products like coffee and cocoa are occurring due to drought and flooding, causing supply issues and increased prices of these every-day items. 

Brazil, accounting for 38% of global coffee production, experienced 110,000 wildfires, affecting 114,000km2 between January and August in 2024, as well as large-scale floods in June 2025. Vietnam, the largest global producer of robusta coffee, is still recovering from drought in the 2023/24 crop year. In 2024, world coffee prices increased by approximately 40% due to the disruption. Moreover, rising temperatures are expected to reduce the area for coffee growing by 50% by 2050.

Cocoa production and prices were impacted by a mix of weather concerns in the Ivory Coast and Ghana, including increased rainfall in 2023, leading to the rapid spread of black pod disease, and a drought in 2024. Between 2022-2024, cocoa prices rose 136%  as a result of disruptions to production and yield.

"The reality is stark: tipping points are being surpassed that could push entire ecosystems to collapse, extreme weather events are becoming the norm, and wildlife populations are declining at an alarming rate," says Sir Dave Lewis, Chair of the Board of Trustees for WWF-UK.

"These shocks are already disrupting food supply chains and hitting businesses hard. If we want resilient supply chains we need to tackle these threats, not bury our heads in the sand. But no company can do this alone; collaboration across the entire system is essential."

Risk mitigation strategies

By taking risk mitigation steps, shippers, suppliers and businesses can reduce the impact weather-related disruption will have on their supply chains. Extreme weather is now a major feature of global trade, highlighting how vulnerable supply chains are. Businesses need to build resilience in order to protect against risk.

Entire value chains need to consider their emissions, turning to sustainable fuels or electrification for their fleets, or using renewable energy to power their businesses. By making these changes, their greenhouse gas emissions will decrease, helping slow down the rising temperatures. More than 90% of retailers' emissions are Scope 3 - emissions generated across the value chain - but increasing data tracking and transparency can help businesses tackle these emissions and make changes to their operations. 

Mitigation can also occur through

• Mapping weather and climate risk across suppliers 
• Building diverse supplier networks
• Increasing buffer stock
• Creating port and routing contingency plans for pre-agreed alternatives
• Implement supply chain management tools

By preparing for these events, supply chains can embed risk management into their operations in order to remain resilient through extreme weather events.