EconomyFruit and vegetable shortages push UK food inflation to...

Fruit and vegetable shortages push UK food inflation to record high


Shortages of fruit and vegetables helped push UK food inflation to a record high in March, according to the latest industry data, suggesting there was little sign of any let up on households struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Annual food inflation reached 15 per cent, up from 14.5 per cent in February and the highest since records began in 2005, the British Retail Consortium said on Tuesday. The biggest price rises affected fresh foods, with inflation up 0.7 points to 17 per cent.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC, said “poor harvests in Europe and north Africa worsened availability” of fruit and vegetables and the weakness of sterling further pushed up the cost of imports.

Prices of fruit and vegetables grown out of seasons in greenhouses in the UK and other northern European countries were also affected by high energy costs.

Dickinson added that the rising cost of sugar had also fed through into higher prices for chocolate and other sweets as the Easter holidays approached. Food inflation hits the poorest households the hardest as grocery shopping accounts for a larger proportion of their spending.

Line chart of Annual % change showing The British Retail Consortium reports accelerating food inflation

Mike Watkins, head of retailer and business Insight at NielsenIQ, which helps compile the data, said the inflationary pressures had forced customers to change their habits. Retailers had seen “more visits but less basket spend, as shoppers manage their weekly food bills by shopping little and more often and seeking out the lowest prices.”

The BRC data suggests that price growth of food and non-alcoholic beverages has continued to accelerate this month. In February, official food inflation hit a 45-year high of 18.2 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics data released last week.

Overall, the official data showed inflation rose unexpectedly month-on-month in February to 10.4 per cent from 10.1 per cent. The Bank of England, which has a 2 per cent inflation target, subsequently raised rates by another quarter point to 4.25 per cent in an effort to curb pricing pressures.

Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, at Hargreaves Lansdown, a financial services company, said the cost of living crisis was “showing little sign of dying down.”

The fast growth of food prices pushed BRC shop price inflation to a new record high of 8.9 per cent in March, up from 8.4 per cent the previous month. Non-food shop inflation rose a more modest 5.9 per cent, contained by discounts on home entertainment equipment and other electrical appliances.



Original Source Link

Latest News

Wall Street could see another good quarter after strong start to 2024

Wall Street could be in for another solid quarter as stocks have embarked on a strong start to...

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Sentenced By Judge To 25 Years In Prison

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison by a...

Bug Zappers Are Swarming on Amazon

Call it a bug zapper, not a feature.Data from Fakespot, a service owned by Mozilla that helps consumers...

District Court Judgment in 303 Creative v. Elenis (the Wedding Web Site Design Case)

Following the Supreme Court's remand to the Tenth Circuit, which in turn led to the remand to district...

How patient-led research could speed up medical innovation

Melissa Red Hoffman was “feeling really stuck” last summer. A 50-year-old surgeon in Asheville, N.C., Hoffman had been...

Must Read

- Advertisement -

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended to you