El Salvador: Key Message Update - Irregular start to primera season with atypical temperatures and rainfall, May - September 2026

Country: El Salvador Source: Famine Early Warning System Network Please refer to the attached file. Key Messages From May to September 2026, Stressed (IPC Phase 2) outcomes are expected to be widespread across El Salvador as household food stocks decline and market reliance increases amid above-average staple grain prices and below-average primera agricultural labor opportunities. An increasing proportion of poor households — particularly in the Western and Eastern Dry Corridor — are likely to face Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes. Smallholder farmers in these areas have already exhausted food stocks, face reduced income, and have limited coping capacity due to increasingly erratic rainfall and recurrent below-average harvests. As a result, purchasing power will remain constrained, and land-poor and labor-dependent households are likely to increase their reliance on both sustainable and unsustainable coping strategies to meet basic food needs. In May, staple food availability remains adequate; however, persistently above-average maize prices continue to constrain food access for poor households dependent on market purchases. In April, wholesale prices for beans and rice remained broadly stable and close to the five-year average in most markets. Wholesale white maize prices, while stable month-on-month, remained above both last year’s levels and the five-year average. In the Gerardo Barrios reference market in San Salvador, white maize prices were 21 percent higher than the previous year and 17 percent above the five-year average. El Salvador’s high dependence on white maize imports and below-average import volumes throughout much of 2025 , combined with elevated production and transportation costs, is likely to sustain upward pressure on maize prices, limiting purchasing power ...

Original source: Relief Web