Australian Food and Grocery Council boss issues inflation warning

The boss of the Australian Food and Grocery Council has warned there will be more hip-pocket pain at the grocery checkout in coming months.

Woolworths has introduced price freezes on 200 pantry staples, which will remain in place until the end of the year, but Australian Food and Grocery Council CEO Tanya Barden says there will still be price increases for shoppers, with fresh produce prices skyrocketing.

“Supermarket manufacturers, retailers, farmers, the whole supply chain is under an enormous strain at the moment,” she told Ross and Russel.

“For the first quarter of this year, food manufactured products sold into supermarkets was running at about 4 per cent inflation for the first quarter, and we’re expecting at least that again this quarter.

“Since that first quarter we’ve had the Russian/Ukrainian situation, which has impacted on oil prices, not only affecting transport fuels but affecting packaging.

“Then we’ve had the weather events as well.

“I am anticipating to see greater inflationary figures in this June quarter.”

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