Which?, a British consumer group, has urged the government to take action to assist consumers when the competition watchdog releases its study of grocery pricing, claiming that some food costs have risen by up to 175% since 2021.

Which? discovered that supermarket prices climbed by 25.8% between June 2021 and June 2023, based on an analysis of over 21,000 food and drink products at market leaders Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose, and Ocado.

Food prices have risen as a result of rising expenses for animal feed, fertiliser, and fuel, as well as energy and labour. Poor harvests, avian flu, and a weaker pound have exacerbated the situation.

According to Which?, however, several grocery products have experienced excessively significant inflation.

This month, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will provide an update on competition and price in the food sector. It earlier said that no evidence pointing to specific concerns had been discovered.

“If competition issues are found, the CMA should be ready to take appropriate action,” Which? said, adding that finance minister Jeremy Hunt should also provide an update on his progress on agreeing measures with industry to ease the pressure on consumers.

Supermarkets in the United Kingdom have denied charges that they profited from the cost of living problem.

In response to Which?, the British Retail Consortium, which represents the big supermarkets, stated that merchants have not passed on all of the cost constraints they have faced to consumers.

“The hard work being done by retailers to absorb cost increases means the UK offers among the cheapest grocery prices in Europe,” said BRC Chief Executive Helen Dickinson.

She also mentioned that some critical necessities, such as butter and bread, had begun to reduce in price in recent weeks.

Europe’s governments have been grappling with excessive inflation. The French government got a guarantee from 75 food firms last month to reduce prices on hundreds of products. Meanwhile, Hungary has implemented required price reduction.

While the UK government has expressed worry about rising food prices, it has stated that price controls are not being considered.

(Adapted from FlipBoard.com)  

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