The FMT Blog

Electricity spend for the UK’s cold storage facilities has more than doubled between 2021 and 2022, a new report published by the Cold Chain Federation (CCF) has found.

Supermarket sales were up by 0.1% over the latest 12 weeks, the first time the market has been in growth since April 2021, whilst grocery price inflation hit the second highest level ever recorded by Kantar.

Chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) said that the industry “cannot be taken for granted” as manufacturers have been “relentlessly squeezed by the pandemic and its impacts, and now by the crisis in Ukraine.”

Amazon’s online grocery shop has announced it will price-match hundreds of Tesco products, in a bid to attract more customers amid soaring food inflation.

Marks and Spencer (M&S) has announced plans to ditch ‘best before’ dates on a range of fruit and vegetable products across its UK stores.

Chris Southworth, director of the International Chamber of Commerce, has agreed with UK farmers that New Zealand’s latest trade deal with the EU exposed difficulties in the UK’s trading relationships with both the EU and New Zealand.

The short-term outlook for the UK food manufacturing sector is “not encouraging” as manufacturers are expected to absorb a significant part of input cost increases, according to the FDF.

Over the three months to June 2022, food sales increased 2.2% on a total basis and 1.6% on a like-for-like basis, according to the latest figures by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

In a joint statement released by retailer Tesco and manufacturer Heinz, the companies have confirmed that they have reached an agreement that will see the full range of Heinz products return to Tesco shelves and online.

Whilst global food prices have fallen for the third month in a row, across many food categories, costs remain far higher than rates recorded in previous years.