Vegetable oil prices set to soar

THE price of cooking oil could shoot up this year after UK harvests were hit by extreme flooding and an early spring.

UK yields of rapeseed oil, widely used in households and fish and chip shops, are expected to be 38% lower than in 2023.

The shrink in average production could even be as much as 54% compared with 2015, figures show.

Tom Lancaster, of the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, said: “We’re seeing a double whammy on cooking oil.

“Be it Spanish olive oil or British vegetable oil, climate extremes are hurting crops and consumers are paying for it at the supermarket checkout.”

The ECIU says it is impossible to say exactly how much prices could rise – it depends partly upon harvests of rapeseed and sunflower crops in the rest of Europe. Rapeseed production had already dropped by around 14% to one million tons last year, according to government figures.

The output fall also comes amid record high prices for olive oil. Office for National Statistics figures show its average price is still rising. It is now £8.04 a bottle, up 39% from £5.78 last year.

Hot temperatures and drought-like conditions have heavily harmed production across the Mediterranean for the last couple of years. National Farmers Union vice-president, Rachel Hallos, said: “While farmers and growers continue to bear the brunt of it for now, consumers may well see the effects throughout the year as supply tightens.”