Food price inflation forcing restaurants to hike prices

The British Hospitality Association (BHA) has warned that restaurants "across the board" have begun to raise menu prices.

BHA chief executive Bob Cotton told today's Financial Times: "Suddenly we've got food price inflation."

The warning came after figures from the Office of National Statistics showed food prices had risen 4.9% in the year ending 31 May.

Vegetable prices are up by 9.6% through a combination of bad weather and crop damage through flooding.

As a result there is expected to be a 50,000 tonne pea shortage in the UK and a knock-on rise in meat prices with animal feed crops similarly damaged and in demand.

Compounding the growing inflation for food is a 12.7% rise in the price of fish and a dramatic rise in the price of bread-making wheat, up by 75.3% over the past two years.

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By Christopher Walton

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