The head of Britain’s biggest poultry supplier has said that food is too cheap and warned that the price of chicken is set to rise substantially.
Ranjit Singh Boparan, the founder and president at 2 Sisters Food Group and owner of Bernard Matthews, says rampant inflation combined with the continuing lack of labour will ultimately result in higher prices.
He said Britons are facing a “Great Food Reset”, with less choice and higher prices.
“The days when you could feed a family of four with a £3 chicken are coming to an end. We need transparent, honest pricing. This is a reset and we need to spell out what this will mean,” Boparan said.
“Food is too cheap, there’s no point avoiding the issue. In relative terms, a chicken today is cheaper to buy than it was 20 years ago. How can it be right that a whole chicken costs less than a pint of beer? You’re looking at a different world from now on where the shopper pays more.”
A rise in poultry prices could hit low-income families disproportionately, as chicken is the most popular meat in the UK.
Boparan said cost rises related to wage inflation and investment in more automated production processes could see inflation reaching “double digits”.
Boparan highlighted inflationary challenges throughout the supply chain, with feed costs and wages both rising 15% in a year. In addition, the shortage of HGV drivers has led to wage inflation in the transport sector, while energy prices have gone up over 500% since last year.
Meanwhile, the price of carbon dioxide, vital in food transport, has risen nearly 500% in the past three weeks, while food packaging costs have gone up 20% in the last six months, he said.
“Inflation is decaying the food sector’s supply chain infrastructure and its ability to operate as normal,” Boparan said.
“That’s from farm to your plate. There are hundreds of farmers out there struggling, and they need our support just as much as anyone. Talk of ‘year zero’ might sound dramatic, but these are the facts: we really have to start thinking differently about what our food priorities are and what they cost.”
Bernard Matthews and 2 Sisters produce around a third of all the poultry products consumed in the UK.
The group has 600 farms and 16 factories, which employ 18,000 people.