Price of groceries including sausages rockets – with cost of apples shooting up 20 PER CENT

THE price of some everyday groceries has rocketed, fuelling a cost of living crisis.

Apples, pork sausages and margarine are just some of the goods that have seen prices soar recently, in some cases as much as 20 per cent.

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In a desperate bid to keep hold of customers, supermarket bosses have tried to avoid passing on price hikes to the consumer in recent weeks.

But signs are emerging that those higher costs are now being passed on in rising retail prices.

Unilever, the makers of Marmite, is the latest big supplier to warn it could hit retailers with higher prices.

The company said it had been offsetting huge inflationary pressures by pushing up prices by 4.1 per cent in the past three months. 

Chief executive Alan Jope, 58, said that the business was facing a “once-in-a-two-decade inflationary scenario, so we have stepped up pricing”. 

Food inflation – how much prices are rising year-on-year – nearly tripled from 0.3 per cent in August to 0.8 per cent in September, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Pork sausages have risen from £4.87 to £5.16 a kilo – a 6 per cent jump.

Pears have increased 16 per cent to £2.37 while apples have surged 20 per cent to £2.35.

Margarine has also risen by 20 per cent – with a typical 500g tub now costing £1.60.

Experts have warned food inflation could continue to rise into next year.

The investment group Shore Capital has predicted prices will rise as much as 6 per cent partway through 2022.

Clive Black, a research analyst at the company, said: “Some suppliers that raised prices in the summer are… already necessarily coming back for more given the inflationary forces.”

He added those in the industry may soon have “no more slack to cut”.

Mr Black said: “With rising demands from supply chains around animal welfare…, safety, sustainability and well-being, in future years shoppers will have to pay more for their food.”

RISING COSTS

The rising cost of food comes at a time when millions of households are already feeling the squeeze due to higher energy costs.

Those on Universal Credit have already lost the £20 uplift which was given to help cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.

A record proportion of the British public thinks inflation will accelerate over the next 12 months, according to data that could further heighten anticipation that the Bank of England will raise interest rates as soon as next month.

Some 48 per cent of people surveyed this month by consumer research firm GfK expected prices to increase more rapidly over the next 12 months, up from 34 per cent in September.

The Bank of England’s new chief economist, Huw Pill, said inflation in Britain could surpass a “very uncomfortable” 5 per cent and the question of whether to raise interest rates would be a “live” one at its November 4 meeting, the Financial Times reported.

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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk