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.