THE boss of the UK’s biggest poultry firm has warned that the days of a £3 chicken are “coming to an end”.
Ranjit Boparan — dubbed the Chicken King — has called on shoppers to accept that current prices are too low and unsustainable.
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He said: “Food is too cheap. 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?”
Mr Boparan, founder of 2 Sisters Food Group, said the business’s 600 farms and 16 factories have seen energy costs rise by 450 per cent in a year.
Feed costs at farms are also up by 15 per cent, with commodity costs in the farming process also rising by around one fifth.
The firm’s chief executive Ronald Kers said the Government’s seasonal worker visas had helped them to secure 700 employees.
But he added: “We’d like this to be extended. Many will only be contracted for six weeks and we’ll have fewer workers in January when demand shoots up.”
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