The average household will pay £37.41 more for food each month by December next year because of the impact of the drought on crops, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).
The Times reports today that between April and July the wholesale prices of onions, cauliflowers, carrots, cabbage, beetroot and parsnips each rose by at least a fifth, partly because of crops failing in light of record temperatures.
If there were no more shocks to supplies, the CEBR suggested that food prices would peak in December next year.
Hot weather reduces farmers’ abilities to maintain crops and to plant new ones and means that, with grass less available, they are using winter stores of feed for livestock. This adds extra cost in the winter when they have to replenish their supplies.
Tom Bradshaw, of the National Farmers’ Union, said many farmers had been forced to water their fields in April to get seeds to germinate, which had resulted in lower levels in reservoirs now.
“Not being able to irrigate their crops has affected the yield of the harvest and the size of the vegetables,” he said.
Food prices have been rising, driven by pandemic-related factors including disrupted supplies and post-lockdown increases in demand.
Exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, known as the bread basket of Europe, the prices of products such as wheat, maize and sunflower oil have gone up.
The cost of fertiliser has soared because of the rising cost of gas, which is used in its production, and sanctions have disrupted supplies from Russia and Belarus, big exporters.
The CEBR said prices for domestically produced ammonium nitrate had risen by 29 per cent in March to £839 per tonne.