BREAD IS RISING Oarsome!
Loaf soars 20p as wheat surges after Brexit vote
BREAD prices have risen by as much as 20p a loaf after wheat costs soared.
Bakery giants had warned they could no longer absorb the hike in the cost of ingredients which followed 2016’s Brexit vote.
Tesco has hiked prices across the Kingsmill range – with an 800g loaf, which was 80p a year ago, now up 25 per cent to £1.
And a 400g loaf is now 15p more expensive at 75p.
Rival Sainsbury’s increased its 400g Kingsmill Crusts Away loaves by 5p to £1.30.
Own-label supermarket bread is also getting more expensive, with an 800g medium sliced white loaf now 55p on average – up 12 per cent on a year ago.
The UK’s biggest bakers say wheat prices are up 20 per cent – mainly as a result of the declining value of the pound since the 2016 EU referendum. The Association of British and Irish Flour Millers said: “Wheat is priced globally so the exchange rate really makes a difference.”
Allied Bakeries, owner of both Kingsmill and Allinson’s, called the situation “unsustainable”. The firm warned in November that commodity inflation, especially for wheat, and lower retail prices had led to a “significant margin decline” in earnings. A 400g loaf of Hovis medium wholemeal is up 13.6 per cent to 78p on average, while a 400g Warburtons medium white is now two per cent more, at 82p. By last February, UK wheat prices were up 38 per cent at £146 per tonne. Last month that had fallen back to £139 – but that still left them well above the price before the EU referendum. FOUR pals celebrate after becoming the first team to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in under 30 days.
Competing as The Four Oarsmen, Brits George Biggar, 32, Dicky Taylor, 32, Stuart Watts, 34, and Peter Robinson, 32, arrived early yesterday in English Bay, Antigua, to win the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge.
They beat the record by six days, reaching land 29 days and 15 hours after setting off from the Canaries.