Wholesale foodservice price inflation down in July
July's Foodservice Price Index, which is produced by CGA and Prestige Foodservice, also revealed that while food prices were falling, the inflationary dip could be attributed to the higher monthly comparables of 2016, when after Brexit, prices soared quickly as the value of the pound fell against the euro.
The report claimed exchange rates and a sharp rise in the price of fish were among the inflationary pressures affecting the sector in June.
However, one positive note is in the price of sugar and cocoa, which saw year-on-year deflation of 6.8%.
Fruity fun
Need to know:
The CGA Prestige Foodservice Price Index is jointly produced by Prestige Purchasing and CGA.
The data is drawn from more than 50% of the foodservice market and involves about 7.8m transactions per month.
Fruit inflation also decreased to 8.95% for July, down from 13.6% in June due to a dip in prices.
But, it wasn’t all good news as oils and fats saw the highest price inflation for July at 12.4%, thanks to harvest issues for olive oil, while meat price inflation saw a rise of 11.4%, compared to the previous year.
While the drop in inflation could benefit pubs, there are still issues within the industry that operators need to be aware of, according to Prestige Purchasing head of consulting and insight Christopher Clare.
Crucial supply issues
“While the CGA Prestige Foodservice Price Index shows that overall the price inflation figures appear to have calmed, this is somewhat due to the high comparables of last year,” said Clare.
“However, there are still a number of crucial supply issues that could force up prices further in many key categories.
“The weakened value of the pound is inevitably having a profound impact on wholesale prices in the UK and in some categories, such as vegetables, the threat of insufficient migrant labour is already threatening to constrain domestic supplies.”
