Inflation falls but food prices climb to 45 year high

A shortage of salad and other vegetables had pushed food inflation to a 45-year high

The rate of inflation has fallen, but food prices are still at record highs, it has emerged.

Inflation, which measures the rate of price rises, dropped to 10.1% in the year to March from 10.4% in February.

Food and drink prices rose by 19.2% in the year to March 2023 - that's the highest rate in over 45 years.

In February, there was a shortage of some salad vegetables like tomatoes and cucumbers.

Food wholesaler Harry Crawford from the North Down Group said the price of some things like salad has eased, but for others, like potatoes, the worst was yet to come.

It is not just the price of the produce, but also the cost of getting it to Northern Ireland, he added.

Food wholesaler Harry Crawford said many factors were involved in the prices of food

"Prices are starting to settle now, a bit, but things will not settle back to where they were by a long chalk.

"And that's simply because we've got so many factors - exchange rates, transport, weather, availability, high input costs for producers and growers."

Inflation is widely expected to fall again later this year.

The high rate has become a problem for many households because prices are rising faster than wages.

Figures from HMRC show that the monthly pay of a typical worker in Northern Ireland in March was £2,110 - that is up £177 or 9.2% on the same time last year.

There is concern that the price of carrots and potatoes could go up

Mr Crawford said while the prices of some foods have peaked, others will continue to rise.

"I think the salads have peaked, that we experienced earlier on in the year, those were exceptional circumstances, so going forward that will settle down - not to the value they were before mind you, but certainly that will improve," he said.

"Salad prices like tomatoes and lettuce, I've never known those prices to be as high in 40 years. They are softening as we are now procuring closer to home but not coming back to where they used to be."

'It's going to be a tough ride'

However, he warned that there are indications that the price of some root vegetables, such as potatoes and carrots, is expected to rise.

"We're being told indications of markets and volumes that the potato category, the carrot category, root veg produce will be strong this year to say the least, in particular potatoes.

"Potatoes will increase and that's because of what's happening in Europe," he said.

"Poland and Ukraine are big producers of potatoes and that capacity is taken out of Europe so the big players are buying up lots of stock which in turn puts prices up here in the domestic market. So it looks like it's going to be a rough ride."