A leading food industry boss has now warned that the price of living will spike as a result of the current war in Ukraine.
Ronald Kers, the boss of food firm 2 Sisters, has told the BBC that the cost of food could rise as much as 15% this year. One of the UK’s leading flour producers, GR Wright & Sons’, has also warned that its prices are “absolutely certain” to rise due to the conflict.
Russia and Ukraine are some of the world’s biggest suppliers of wheat and their exports are being affected by the war. The battle between the two EU countries is likely to exacerbate prices that were already increasing during a time that is being described as a “cost of living crisis”, according to some experts.
2 Sisters currently employs more than 14,000 people in the UK and specialises in poultry and chilled foods. Kers continued to tell BBC that his company had already been forced to pay 50% more for the chicken it receives from farms. He suggested that if the war continues for months, it fundamentally means that the UK has to start “importing less and producing more ourselves,” adding that “we all need to work together with all supply chain partners to find a solution. It’s a very complex issue.
Kers also suggested that the UK’s exit from the European Union has made matters more difficult, this due to the bigger administrative burden for farmers and less alignment on rules with food companies on the continent.
Other organisations have warned that any costs passed on by food producers would hit those on the lowest incomes the hardest. Research from the Resolution Foundation has predicted the war in Ukraine will lead to another spike in the cost of living this autumn. Inflation could reach up to 10% for the poorest households, whose energy and food bills make up the bigger proportion of their budgets.
