There have been calls for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to help struggling consumers with sky-high supermarket price inflation, just as an investigation has been launched by the UK competition watchdog over high food and fuel prices.
New research from consumer group Which? shows prices for some grocery items have doubled over the past year, while others including some prices for onions, sausages and yoghurt have risen over 85%.
Downing Street is today hosting a 'farm to fork' summit with bosses from the supermarket, farming and food production industries, while the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said overnight that it is stepping up its probe into the grocery sector, with concerns that "weak competition" may be resulting in consumers paying higher prices than they should be.
Last week, a probe was also launched by Parliament's Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee into the earnings of companies at all stages in the food supply chain, from farmers and food producers through to supermarkets. One of the key areas will be to analyse whether there is any discrepancy between wholesale and retail prices.
Grocery industry inflation data showed prices in April were 17.3% above where they were the year before, while the latest official inflation numbers showed a 19.1% jump in food prices in March, while world wholesale food costs dropped by 19.7% year-on-year.
Inflation on supermarket own-label budget items stepped up to 25% in April, according to data from Which, though overall food price inflation had started to ease to 17.1% from 17.2% the month before.
PM Sunak was urged by Which to "challenge supermarket chief executives to do more" at the food summit.
"He should ask them to take urgent action to help consumers cope with rampant food price increases by ensuring that smaller convenience stores stock a range of essential budget lines that support a healthy diet, especially in areas where they are most needed," the consumer group said.
CMA probe deepens
The CMA had not seen evidence pointing to specific competition concerns in the grocery sector "at this stage", but would deepen its investigation in the sector "to understand whether any failure in competition is contributing to grocery prices being higher than they would be in a well-functioning market".
The CMA said its new phase of work will assess how competition is working overall in the grocery retail market, as well as identifying which product categories might merit closer examination across the supply chain.
Sue Davies, head of food policy at Which, commended the CMA's investigation, alongside the project it has already announced looking at how unit pricing is provided by supermarkets.
"Although food supply chains have been facing several pressures and a whole range of factors affect the final food price, consumers must not be forced to pay a higher price for food unnecessarily," Davies said.
"We believe supermarkets can and should play a much bigger role in helping their customers to navigate the cost of living crisis. This means ensuring budget ranges that support a healthy diet are available in convenience stores, especially in areas of the country where they’re needed most, as well as transparent unit pricing so people can easily work out which products offer best value."
Downing Street said it is hosting representatives from the food supply chain to "identify ways to boost growth, drive innovation and improve sustainability", a day after a new support package was announced for farmers, including 45,000 visas for the horticulture sector next year to able planning for the fruit picking season.