ISLANDERS are being warned to expect a rise in food prices as ‘huge’ wholesale cost increases start to have an impact in Channel Islands stores, Jersey’s largest retailer has said.
Following an approach by the JEP, a spokesperson for SandpiperCI, which runs the Iceland, Morrisons Daily and Marks & Spencer supermarkets in the islands, confirmed that price increases were ‘unfortunately’ on the way ‘due to well-publicised imminent wholesale food price rises’.
Price surges across the world are largely being blamed on soaring energy costs and supply-chain disruption, which have led to inflation rising to 5.4% in the UK – the highest level in 30 years.
The trend has been reflected in the Island with Jersey Dairy today announcing an 8p increase in the price of a litre of milk, citing rising costs for famers.
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The most recent figures from Statistics Jersey show that the rate of inflation has risen to 3.8% – its highest level since 2018 – with the price of gas increasing by 13%, electricity by 4% and water by 3.5%.
And swathes of Islanders face paying hundreds of pounds more in monthly mortgage repayments after a rise in interest rates – with further increases expected later this year.
SandpiperCI said: ‘Food-price inflation is being caused by global factors which are generally outside of the Island’s control.
‘Huge wholesale energy increases, shortage of supplies, spiralling wage inflation and post-Brexit issues will all push wholesale food prices up and cause local food-retail price inflation.’
They added: ‘SandpiperCI operates three competitive national food franchises in Jersey and benefits from the strong buying power of each brand.
‘The factors driving retail food-price inflation are global and not something Sandpiper has any direct control over. In the current market, Sandpiper’s UK franchise partners are best placed to continue to secure the best possible terms available.’
The Channel Islands Co-operative Society and Waitrose were also contacted for comment but had not responded at the time of printing.
Carl Walker, chairman of the Jersey Consumer Council, said that he would like to see extra government funding provided for its price-comparison website to help tackle the issue.
‘With the price of groceries we currently cover about 90 different lines on our price-comparison site and we have applied for more funding to extend what we do and to automate it,’ he said.
‘We’re not going to be able stop inflation but we could at least bring it down a bit by giving consumers more awareness of prices and increasing competition between retailers,’ he said.
He added that a similar project he had carried out while working as a JEP journalist had been successful in bringing down inflation.
‘We know that this sort of thing works because when we first started publishing petrol prices in the JEP, Statistics Jersey recorded that prices had come down,’ he said.
‘What we would like to do is also start covering things like white goods and building supplies. Most people know the price of things like bread and milk, but when it comes to things like getting a new washing machine or a bag of cement, it’s much more difficult to know what is a good price.
‘Automation would require co-operation on the part of retailers but if some were to do it hopefully the rest of them would follow.’
A Government of Jersey spokeswoman said that Social Security Minister Judy Martin was monitoring the situation on food-price inflation.
‘Income Support rates were increased in October, and the minister has already agreed an increase for this year,’ she said.
‘Any local changes in food prices would affect all Islanders, so the minister is paying close attention to see what happens over the coming months.’
Meanwhile, Mike Renouard, business unit director at the Jersey Royal Company, said the Island’s agriculture industry had been hit by rising wholesale costs in almost every area.
‘Most of our input costs have increased significantly this year above what we normally expect. You expect to see 2% to 3% inflation but this year it’s much higher than that,’ he said.
‘Fertiliser is more than double what it would’ve been in previous years. The minimum wage has gone up 11%. We’ve got some additional staff costs because they have additional holidays now.
‘Timber, which we use for repairing boxes, is probably more than double where it was. Fuel’s going up. There’s probably nothing that hasn’t gone up quite significantly.’
