The UK is currently facing it’s biggest price rises in the last 40-years. Food inflation, due to the ongoing War in Ukraine and now with the Cost of Living at an all-time high, people and businesses alike are struggling to make ends meet.

Let’s explore how and why this is happening and we’ll help to shine a light into potential forecasts for the future.

Food Inflation & The Cost of Living

Soaring food costs have forced UK inflation to double digits for the first time since 1982. Prices are set to continue to rise at the fastest rate in over 40-years. The official inflation figures reached over 10% at the end of July, up from 9.4% in June (taken from the Office for National Statistics ONS). Rising food and drink prices made the biggest contribution to the change in inflation. It is expected to continue to rise this year. The Bank of England predict it won’t go down to the target 2% for approximately two years. Sadly the UK has the highest inflation rate among the G7 Nations.

Food price inflation in the United Kingdom reached 12.6% in July, the highest for more than 20 years.

Dairy products such as Bread, Cereals, Cheese, Eggs and Milk rose the fastest in terms of cost, and they are expected to continue to rise for the foreseeable future.  This is just one portion of the sector, luxury products such as chocolate, fresh fruit, vegetables and fresh meat all experienced huge increases.

The impact that cost of production is having on raw materials such as crude and rapeseed oil for farming is forcing price surges across the Globe. With the hot-weather expected to continue crop yields will suffer; further impacting the cost to consumer.

Fresh Meats Markets are also suffering, with demand for supermarket products such as ham & bacon seeing prices soar. The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has published that Pork has seen a 4% increase in production from the start of the year. Not only this but due to the cost of living Red Meat has seen huge decline in demand as it’s deemed ‘too expensive’ for consumers.