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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