Tesco’s Chairman John Allan has told the BBC “the worst is yet to come” on rising food prices. He was aware people were on very tight budgets and having to choose between food and heating “troubles us”.
He estimated supermarket prices could rise as much as 5 per cent by the spring as energy and other costs feed through to the High Street, adding that Tesco’s food price inflation in the last three months had been contained to about 1 per cent.
“We are impacted by rising energy prices, our suppliers are impacted by rising energy prices. So the likelihood is that that inflation figure will rise,” he said.
People having to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families “troubles us, and I’m sure troubles many people… That’s clearly not a situation that any of us should tolerate,” he said.
A report earlier this month from the British Retail Consortium said food inflation accelerated to 2.7 per cent in January, up from 2.4 per cent in December.
