There have been some fundamental changes to all of our lives over the past six years, the Brexit referendum, the Covid pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  It is hard to overestimate the impact of these events.

            The most obvious result has been inflation bringing a cost of living crisis, particularly in food and energy.  It is shocking that, according to the latest figures, almost ten million people in this country are struggling to feed themselves adequately and, for many, it is a choice between food and warmth.  Fortunately, the weather has been exceptionally mild this autumn but there are months of winter still to come.

            Food prices rose by 16.2% in the year to October but the cost of many basic foodstuffs has risen far higher than that.  Milk is 65% more expensive than a year ago, eggs 22%, pasta 34%, flour and cereals 28%.  Problems started in the fruit and vegetable sector when the Brexit vote resulted in far fewer European workers coming to the UK for harvest, resulting in crops rotting in the fields.  This year, the situation has been exacerbated by summer drought bringing poor yields, especially for root vegetables.  The shortage of labour also had an impact on other areas of the food and hospitality industry.

            Covid brought its own problems, particularly for hospitality, with knock-on effects throughout the food chain.  Then the war in Ukraine disrupted trade in goods from oil and gas to wheat, oilseed and fertiliser.  The impact was profound with rampant inflation of costs in energy, food, transport and labour.  The increase in the cost of nitrate fertiliser, from less than £300 to over £800 per tonne, pushed up the price of wheat and other crops.  That raised the price of animal feed and thus the cost of dairy products, meat and eggs.