Prices set to soar, food’s too cheap says poultry boss

THE UK’s biggest poultry firm has warned that prices will jump by more than 10%, with the days of a £3 chicken “coming to an end”.

Ranjit Boparan, the owner of Bernard Matthews and 2 Sisters Food Group – which has three plants in Wales – warned shoppers are facing a “great food reset” on the back of soaring inflation across the sector, hitting costs including wages, energy and CO2.

Mr Boparan, who has been dubbed the “Chicken King”, said the industry needs customers to recognise “transparent, honest pricing”.

He said: “The days when you could feed a family of four with a £3 chicken are coming to an end. This is a reset and we need to spell out what this will mean.

Food is too cheap, there’s no point avoiding the issue. In relative terms, a chicken today is cheaper to buy than it was 20 years ago.

“How can it be right that a whole chicken costs less than a pint of beer?”

The company highlighted that the business’s 600 farms and 16 factories have witnessed energy costs more than 450% higher than this time last year.

It also reported feed costs at farms have hiked by 15 per cent, with commodity costs also climbing by around 20 per cent.

2 Sisters – which has plants in Rogerstone, near Newport, Llangefni on Anglesey, and Sandycroft on Deeside – is also among companies to have been hit heavily by the shortage of CO2 caused by soaring natural gas prices, with the price of CO2, which is used for packaging and poultry processing, jumping by up to 500% in just three weeks.

Ronald Kers, chief executive of 2 Sisters, said that recent supply disruption means fewer options for shoppers.

“We have had to cut down on range – a shortage of labour meant that more complicated items were just not sustainable for us to make. We are pleased the government secured the seasonal worker visas because we are now able to get another 600 to 700 workers in to deal with demand ahead of Christmas.

“We would like this to be extended, though.”