Traders fighting food price rises

Traders in the Black Country say they are battling not to pass on food price increases to their customers.

Official figures show wholesale food prices have risen by 7.4 per cent in the last year – more than three times the headline rate of inflation.

It has pushed the average basket of groceries up by 12 per cent in a year with the blame falling on rising meat prices and global shortages in key crops.

And it has also created wild differences in the amount customers pay for food, as some stores push prices up as others maintain them in an effort to draw people in.

Some traders in Wolverhampton say they have seen prices increase as the cost of fuel has risen.

Last year's bad weather has also not helped as it had a big affect on the British harvest, leading to less produce being available than expected this year.

The poor weather in the summer months has seen a kilo bag of frozen peas at Tesco go up from £1.19 at the end of 2006 to £1.79 at the end of last year.

A dozen free-range eggs from Sainsburys rose from £1.62 to £2.35 and Asda increased the price of orange juice from 73p a litre to 88p.

Tony Jones from Bradshaws farm near Perton, which sells a range of fruit and vegetables, said: "The only thing we do is absorb any increases ourselves rather than pass them onto the customer.

"We can get round it as we grow a lot of our own stuff but packing costs and growing costs can also increase.

"Last year because it was so cold we saw fewer crops. We would normally have excess that we would send to fruit and vegetable wholesalers but we have had to keep everything for ourselves this year.

"But hopefully we won't see the likes of last summer again so it will just be the one year."

He added: "We grow a lot of soft fruit such as strawberries ourselves but we also work very closely with our growers.

"We have built up a relationship so we can get through things together."

Supermarkets as well as wholesalers which supply the city's fruit and vegetable shops and market traders are increasingly turning abroad to source foods.

At the city's ASDA store next to the Molineux, there is broccoli from Spain, peppers from Holland and apples from France. Company bosses admit the increase in fuel costs has also put pressure on their prices.

Experts say the rate of food price inflation is making life difficult for millions of families.

The official inflation rate is 2.1 per cent, but with food prices rising above that figure, gas and electricity prices being hiked by around 10 per cent and council tax bills set to rise by around five per cent, money for many remains too tight to mention.