Foodservice price inflation falls but meat and dairy costs rise
The figure has dropped from the 9% rate recorded in May, which was the highest figure for nearly nine years.
Meat prices have risen 11.4% year-on-year, while oils and fats saw the highest price inflation at 12.4% due to issues with the harvest in newer producing countries.
The prices of wholesale milk, cheese and eggs have also risen slightly to 10.6%.
One bright spot was the price of sugar and cocoa, which has dropped 6.8%, while fruit costs fell to 8.95% in July.
CGA says that though some food prices are coming down, the year-on-year drop in inflation was mainly due to the rapid price rises seen in the comparable post-Brexit period last year.
“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,” says Christopher Clare, Head of Consulting & Insight at Prestige Purchasing.
“However, there are still a number of crucial supply issues that could force up prices further in many key categories.”
Earlier this month a Food and Drink Federation survey of 600 businesses in the ‘farm-to-fork’ supply chain found that 31% had already seen EU workers leave the country.
“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,” says Graeme Loudon, commercial director at CGA.
Read our 10 ways to combat food cost inflation here.
