Wet weather hits food from beer to biscuits

Shop prices and imports set to rise as damp autumn and winter ‘washout’ takes toll on the UK’S farmers

THE price of bread, beer and biscuits is set to increase because of an unusually wet autumn and winter, experts have warned.

Analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), an independent research body, found that production of wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape could fall by four million tonnes this year compared to 2023.

That would be a reduction of 17.5 per cent and comes after the unusually wet autumn resulted in lower levels of planting, while relentless storms and flooding over the winter months led to even more losses for British farmers.

Experts have said there is a “real risk” that the price of bread, beer and biscuits could all climb this year as the impact of poor harvests feed into production.

Tom Lancaster, a land analyst at ECIU, said: “This washout winter is playing havoc with farmers’ fields leading to soils that are so waterlogged they cannot be planted or are too wet for tractors to apply fertilisers.

“This is likely to mean not only a financial hit for farmers but higher imports as we look to plug the gap left by a shortfall in UK supply.

“There’s also a real risk that the price of bread, beer and biscuits could increase as the poor harvest may lead to higher costs.”

Wheat production could be hit particularly hard, with the ECIU estimating a fall of more than a quarter – 26.5 per cent – compared to 2023.

This is because milling of the wheat that is used to make bread needs to meet higher quality requirements that will be more difficult for farmers to achieve with the wet weather. Last week, the head of Associated British Foods – one of the UK’S biggest breadmakers which owns Kingsmill and Ryvita – warned of potentially higher shop prices if the rise in the cost of domestic grains is not offset by larger than expected harvests abroad.

With the wet weather continuing to hamper the planting of spring crops such as barley, brewers and distillers may also see higher ingredient costs, leading to an increase in the price of a pint, the ECIU said.

It comes as the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) recently said extreme

‘This is likely to mean a financial hit for farmers and higher imports as we look to plug the gap’

Milly Bradley, a young farmer from Witheridge, near Tiverton, in Devon, prepares prize bull Louis de Earn in the lead-up to the country show season across the UK.