Warning that the price of beer, bread and biscuits could rise

After years of painfully high prices during the cost of living crisis, the cost of purchasing many common foodstuffs could increase later this year. Bread, beer, and biscuit prices look set to rise sharply after a wet winter's impact on crops across the country, according to new analysis by climate experts.

The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) looked at crop area forecasts from the agriculture industry and Government yield data, finding that production of key crops like wheat, barley, oats, and oilseed rape might drop by four million tonnes compared to 2023 - a significant reduction of 17.5 per cent.

This comes after an exceptionally wet autumn led to reduced planting levels, and subsequent storms and flooding over the winter exacerbated losses for British farmers. The situation appears even more stark when considering the average production from 2015 to 2023, with potential declines exceeding five million tonnes or 21.2 per cent, the ECIU suggests.

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Tom Lancaster, a land analyst at the ECIU, has highlighted a "real risk" of price increases for bread, beer and biscuits if the poor harvest translates into higher costs for producers.

The alert was raised amidst signs that food prices were starting to ease after the recent surge in inflation driven by the global gas price crisis.

Wheat is among the crops facing the most severe forecasted decline, with the ECIU estimating a fall of over a quarter 26.5 per cent compared to last year's figures, particularly impacting milling wheat which is used in bread production and requires higher quality standards that may be challenging to meet due to the adverse weather conditions.

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