Food and Drink Federation Scotland response to today’s inflation figures

Balwinder Dhoot, Director of Sustainability and Growth, The Food and Drink Federation said:

"It’s encouraging to see a decline in food and drink inflation to 7.0 per cent in January. Any reduction is important to households struggling to afford higher food bills, and for business who are paying higher salaries at a time when they are continuing to streamline production costs to deliver competitive prices for shoppers.

"Unpredictable weather patterns persistently impact agricultural yields. Ongoing navigation challenges in the Red Sea, coupled with rising shipping costs, may soon exert pressure on energy prices, and, therefore, on food prices, given the energy-intensive nature of the food and drink industry. The extent of this impact hinges on the duration of ship diversions from the Suez Canal and any escalations in the Middle East.

"We are also seeing increased regulatory costs being put on industry by government. To support food and drink manufacturers and help hard pressed shoppers, the government must reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens and urgently reassess costly ‘not for EU’ labelling requirements for food sold in Great Britain."

Background

The decrease isn’t consistent across all goods. While we have seen prices fall for whole milk and butter by 10.0 and 7.8 per cent respectively. Olive oil is up by 38.2 per cent, cocoa and powdered chocolate has risen by 25.1 per cent and sugar is up by 18.0 per cent