Prices of basic food items in the UK could soar by as much as 50 per cent – as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
Reliance on wheat from that country and Russia has seen the wholesale cost rocket by nearly 50 per cent over the most recent fortnight.
And the double-whammy of the price of gas increasing means producers of vegetables are having to dump them in landfills because they can’t afford to heat their glasshouses.
Experts believe the knock-on effect of both problems could see the price of bread increase by 20 per cent, pasta 50 per cent and potatoes 30 per cent.
Eurostar Commodities director Jason Bull told the Times: ‘We are in unprecedented times. We’ve had Brexit, Covid, global warming and now war.
‘Suppliers are cancelling contracts with immediate effect and putting in big increases. Freight costs are going up while stock is at sea.
‘We have real worries about food price inflation and food insecurity. The situation was not good before the war and now it’s worse.’
In real terms, the problems could be passed onto the customer in price with an average loaf of bread feared to be facing a rise from £1.20 to £1.44.
Italian food fans could be looking at a leap from 75p to £1.12 for a 500g packet of pasta.
Drinkers at the pub may are predicted to see a pint go from £4.80 to £5.52 while a bag of potatoes could go from £1 to £1.30.
A pint of milk may also see a small increase, but only pennies, with estimates of a rise from 60p to 63p.
The NFU has also become increasingly worried about the future of UK producers.
It has written to the government to call for urgent action and set up a task force to monitor the situation and work out when to intervene.
Minette Batters, president of the NFU, told Radio 4: ‘I think the impact has been felt most harshly in the protected crop sector, that’s aubergines, peppers, cucumbers.
‘We are already seeing massive contractions because these businesses – really 50 per cent of those costs – are reliant on the price of gas so if you take the normal price, the average for a therm of gas, at 60p, a grower I spoke to yesterday said it’s now 600, I mean these costs are just impossible to grow.
‘We are seeing massive contraction, they were talking about 80 million cucumbers to 35, 100 million peppers to 50. The only thing is to keep these glasshouses empty. This situation isn’t going away soon.
‘We have lived with a very savage retail price war for some time now. We are looking at the cost of a chicken 50 per cent higher than it was last year.
‘We have really got to look at the gas requirements for the whole industry. We’re asking that government do that as a matter of extreme urgency, and that they pull together a marketing core group that will monitor this situation with industry experts so we can plan prepare and prioritise and then look at where potentially we would want to intervene otherwise we are going to see less British production.
‘We are seeing wheat prices going to places we have never seen before.
‘Ukraine and Russia are massive exporters of wheat. Of course its going to drive massive inflation.
‘We have to act to make sure consumers have affordable food and we don’t contract production.’
Source: Daily Mail UK