Food prices expected to climb by 5% due to this year’s extreme weather
This year’s heatwave and extreme weather will result in the prices of meat, vegetable and dairy items rising by at least 5% in the coming months, according to new research.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) is predicting that the weather will end up costing UK consumers £45 million per week which equates to a rise of £7.15 per month per household. When forecasting the price uplifts, CEBR used Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs research into the sensitivity of consumer prices to wholesale price shocks,
CEBR said the hot weather combined with a “cold, wet and challenging” winter has already led to a marked rise in wholesale prices with the cost of onions climbing by 41% between March and July. In addition, the wholesales prices of carrots, lettuce, wheat for bread, and strawberries have increased by 80%, 61%, 20% and 28% respectively.
Dairy production was also impacted during the heatwave which has resulted in the farm gate price of butter rising by 24% since March.
The firm is also predicting that meat prices will increase due to a shortage of livestock feed.
Meanwhile CEBR said that wine fans will aslo be affected as severe hailstorms in the French wine regions of Bordeaux, Champagne and Cognac had eliminated millions of bottles of product.
