Poor harvest means bread price rise


24 September 2001



‘Poor harvest means bread price rise’

By FWi staff

BREAD prices may rise by 20p a loaf in the next 10 days, report two of Britains national newspapers.

“Planting was down in acreage terms and farmers are yielding 25% less than previous years,” Meurig Raymond of the National Farmers Union cereals committee told the Daily Mail.

“As far as the cost of a loaf is concerned, the value of wheat is very small compared to the other costs like haulage and labour.”

“For the price of wheat to go up 15-20% does not mean bread will go up by the same amount,” he said.

The paper also comments on the UK bread industry hierarchy, suggesting that Hovis will be able to recoup some of its multi-million pound makeover through the price rise.

However, the paper ends its story by claiming that farmers, bakers and supermarkets have all considered the price of bread artificially low and are now seeing an opportunity to push prices to more natural levels.

The Daily Express quotes a spokesman for the National Association of British and Irish Millers who said: “I dont think the millers will be able to absorb these cost increases.

“Bakers in turn will be looking to pass these rises on.”

Both papers also suggest that the seasons low barley yields, the worst for the past 20 years, may have an effect on beer and whisky.

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