You may have read that the UN who use a broad index of global food costs have reported that they have risen at their fastest rate in over a decade.

Suppliers have been affected by disruptions to production, transport and labour during and coming out of the other side of the pandemic.  According to the index annual food prices were up 39.7% in May which was the largest month on month gain since October 2010.

The challenges created by a lack of labour has left suppliers unable to achieve the service levels that they would normally expect to provide to their customers.  Cancelled and late deliveries are causing significant amounts of pressure on those businesses that are trying to reopen after coming out of lockdown and leaving consumers short changed.

Shipping costs have also continued to rise. The pandemic has led to significant changes in global trade and has created an imbalance of supply and demand which has strained the industry. There is a shortage of shipping containers and as a result rates were up over 300% with costs for East to West trans-pacific trade up significantly more.

All of these factors are ultimately effecting the cost of goods and the industry is expecting higher food costs moving through until at least autumn.