United Kingdom-Meat prices soaring.

UNITED KINGDOM-SOARING MEAT PRICES.

Although supermarkets are in the midst of a price war, overall baskets are not reducing drastically on last years prices. One of the main reasons is the cost of meat, which has been spiralling with up to 56% increases on some of our favourite cuts, adding cost to consumers.

Following the collapse in the cost of oil and commodity crops, it was believed prices would fall this year but in fact they have gone the other way, with very little evidence of these drops being passed on to the consumer. In fact the recent Daily Mail Cost of Living Index for February showed a 20.5per cent annual increase in the cost of a shopping basket of staple foods.

Food industry leaders claim one of the main reasons is because of the fall in the value of the pound against the Euro and Dollar. The shift means more British meat is being exported to stores and consumers in Europe, creating pressure on UK supplies and forcing UK prices to rise for shoppers.

British supermarkets, which might have imported red meat from Ireland and Europe, are now buying more home produced meat because the foreign product has become too expensive. The net effect is that shoppers may feel they have been cheated by not getting the lower prices they were expecting.

Fresh pork has seen the biggest price hike, up 19% on average from last year, followed by beef, which is 17% more, and lamb, up 9%. Indeed, top selling lines such as a 500g pack of 85% Fat Free British Pork Mince from Tesco, is up from £1.28 to £2.00 in a year, a rise of 56.2per cent. The price of lamb chops at Asda is up from £7.00 per kilo to £9.99 - a rise of 42.7per cent. Sainsbury’s British Pork Thin Cut Loin Steaks are up by 54.6per cent to £8.38 a kilo.

Separately, it has emerged that the body responsible for promoting British beef and lamb is dropping the famous ’Beefy’ and ’Lamby’ characters modelled on Sir Ian Bothan and Alan Lamb.