Food prices rise above Britain inflation in cost of living crisis

Food prices rise above Britain inflation in cost of living crisis

Retail















Bloomberg

The decades-long era of cheap food in Britain may be coming to an abrupt end.

With the UK wilting under the fastest inflation in three decades, supermarkets are raising prices at an even quicker rate, according to a new analysis prepared for Bloomberg. That’s turning the screws on shoppers who are already grappling with higher gas and heating bills and falling real incomes.

“In terms of prices, the only way is up,” said Honor Strachan, principal food and grocery analyst at GlobalData Plc, a research and consulting firm in London. “It’s something that we will have to get used to.”

A mix of cutthroat competition and innovation helped keep UK prices among the cheapest globally for decades, with the average share of household spending on food in Britain well below its European neighbours. Now a confluence of events, from Brexit to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, is limiting supplies of everything from sunflower oil to wheat to the fertiliser needed to grow crops.

A basket of staples ranging from instant coffee to baked beans climbed more than 13% in price over the past year at Britain’s four