The price of butter and general price rises

[FlatteredFool]

My favourite Kerrygold has just jumped from £1.90 to £2.00. We use a lot of it with the dcs' toast addiction. The price of butter has risen steadily over the years but that's a big jump. Is Brexit to blame as it's imported from Ireland? I've noticed things increasing in general but not to this extent all at once. It is it covid related? Or is butter a luxury now?

For example Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste £2.99 in Savers but £4.50 at Tesco

I bulk order my toothpaste for these reasons. Once I forgot, had to buy in Tescoa nd the bery next week I ordered 12 from elsewhere.

I vaguely recall the price of butter rose significantly before Brexit and think it related to a reduction in UK milk production though don't know if effects on Irish butter arise from different causes, rose only after Brexit or due to supply/demand of the UK butter substitute. I realised I don't really understand agricultural economics. When there's a glut, farmer's struggle as prices drop. When there's a reduction in production due to drought, farmer's produce less and don't make money. I don't know if its farmers' PR, the results of dominant market structures (supermarkets) or just complex supply and demand across international markets.

It’s not just Brexit, its costs in the food supply chain - absence is still high due to Covid, huge worker shortages (probably due to Brexit) driving up wages (remember the outrage at the suggestion that immigration was suppressing wages?), massive shortage of HGV drivers (not Brexit related) are all significantly increasing the costs of making, moving and selling food.

I always shop around and stock up. I've had to pay £1.95 for some Clover Light this week, never paid more than £1.25 before, usually £1. Even DH noticed the price and that's a first.

We are country life spreadable addicts and yes it’s got rather expensive. In Sainsbury’s it’s around £3.25 for a 500g tub. I generally wait till it is on offer for £2.25 (happens every couple of weeks) and then buy 4/5 tubs to last us the month comfortably.

If it’s not on offer and we run out I try to do my shop at Asda that week as it’s much cheaper.

In answer to your earlier question though yes butter is definitely a luxury now. There is a huge choice of affordable margarines and spreads which will set you back £1 per kg or less. Having come from a very low income background I see it as a big luxury; we thought we were lucky to get flora

Wait till you see what's happened to wholesale gas prices. 😣

The major underlying reason for price rises is international demand.

Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste £2.99 in Savers but £4.50 at Tesco
@Magicpaintbrush it’s £1.99 on Amazon and £1.69 if you do subscribe & save, and then it would arrive every month without you needing to think about it. I love subscribe & save, do it for loads of things like regular toiletries, laundry, cleaning and pet stuff. Set it up, once a month I check the upcoming delivery to see if there’s anything coming that I don’t need then cancel or skip it, and then once a month a couple of big Amazon boxes arrive. Minimal brain effort, minimal time needed to manage and saves money too. Wish Amazon paid their taxes but a one-woman boycott isn’t going to effect that so 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wonder if higher costs of butter and milk in NZ is because they pay their farmers properly though? There are some things that even pre-Brexit I’d prefer to buy British for multiple reasons but dairy products is definitely one. If I’m buying butter I like Yeo Valley, it is expensive though, but organic as well. We tend to use a vegan spread most of the time though.

@MinesAMassiveSalad

Wait till you see what's happened to wholesale gas prices. 😣

The major underlying reason for price rises is international demand.

I'll have a look into this. Why has international demand gone up though?

Wish Amazon paid their taxes

They pay taxes they are due. Fact that law allows for them to pay little compared to what it could be isn't their problem.

Glad to hear about the subscribe and save. I've been looking at it🤔

The price of butter has been steadily rising in Europe for a number of years. If you think it's bad here, go to the Netherlands; my Dutch friends tell me that the €2 small pack of butter disappeared years ago. As pp said above, a lot of European butter is going to China in the form of pastries, but we're also on the hook. Five years ago you hardly ever saw a brioche hamburger bun or hot dog roll here, now it would be almost unthinkable to not have one with your middle class barbecue or pub lunch. The buns are almost all made in France, with European butter.

In the UK we have been relatively well-insulated from global price movements because retail prices for many, many things in the UK bear strikingly little resemblance to global wholesale costs. But, I think we have reached the point where supermarkets cannot or will not shield consumers from global trends. We've barely scratched the surface.

I read earlier this week that the wholesale price of cooking oil has increased 30% over the summer. I know that Lidl's Primadonna extra virgin olive oil jumped from £1.75 to £2.09 - the thick end of 20% - in one go last week.

You need to switch to block butter and a butter dish. The Aldi West Country stuff with sea salt crystals is delicious and £1.59 for a 250g block.

The shrinking chocolate thing is ostensibly part of a drive to encourage us to eat less sugar and fat.

It's actually handy for people like me who need to watch their weight but can't give up the little treats. Loads of chocolate is now portioned to scrape under a 100 calorie limit.

@gingercat02

Good Irish butter (Kerrygold is as good as you get generally in the UK) a different thing completely from Lurpak 🤮 or even English butter but it's always been expensive. It's probably transport costs going up due to driver issues, so yes Brexit

Yes, there can be variation in quality of many basic foods, sometimes it is worth paying more. Not if you are struggling, but you often see people scrimp on basic foods only to spend far more than they save on convenience foods.

To be fair, £1.90 to £2 isn't exactly a 'jump', never mind a 'huge jump'. Yes it all adds up and I'm sure it can still be a jump to some but try items jumping from
£1 to £2.50,
£1.25 to £1.70,
£2 to £3 and these are items I have to buy - no alternative due to family health/food choices.

LemonViolet - Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste £2.99 in Savers but £4.50 at Tesco @Magicpaintbrush* it’s £1.99 on Amazon and £1.69 if you do subscribe & save, and then it would arrive every month without you needing to think about it. I love subscribe & save, do it for loads of things like regular toiletries, laundry, cleaning and pet stuff. Set it up, once a month I check the upcoming delivery to see if there’s anything coming that I don’t need then cancel or skip it, and then once a month a couple of big Amazon boxes arrive. Minimal brain effort, minimal time needed to manage and saves money too.

That is a really great tip, thank you, I'd never heard of this :-)

@ZoyaTheDestroyer

You need to switch to block butter and a butter dish. The Aldi West Country stuff with sea salt crystals is delicious and £1.59 for a 250g block.

God yes. It’s my butter of choice and I’m massively fussy about butter.

I used to get lescure butter. Now I get own brand of wherever I am. I can’t sustain a lescure habit for 6 but it will be coming back once we are empty nesters.

Why all the drama about energy prices? They’re just returning to where they were: www.ovoenergy.com/guides/energy-guides/wholesale-energy-prices

And yup, food prices were always going to rise after Brexit and the pandemic has exacerbated it, but it’s not the beginning of Armageddon.

Smol is good value for laundry tabs and they are delivered to you in a cardboard box so no plastic waste( which is what you are paying for.)
They do dishwasher tabs too.

and food is much less expensive in the UK than it is elsewhere in Europe.
This. With bells on. Standard cheap butter is £2.65 for 250g. Organic is £3.10 for 200g. I stare in envy at the complaints about expensive weekly shops!

Ofcourse anything imported from Europe/Ireland is now going to go up in cost due to import charges and increases in transportation, that was the consequence of brexit,

The company I work for has had 2 x 10% increases from our manufacturers this year for products made in European factories and some have even risen by 30% - which means a massive hike for the end user in an already burdened industry, sad but I am sure we will sort it all out in the end and start buying British again 😁

According to The Times today pasta is going to double in price soon. Bad durham wheat harvest apparently. Thankfully I still have about a 5 year supply under the bed!

The UK is atypically cheap worldwide when it comes to food prices though. I had a short project in Ireland a couple years ago and I swear my food bill nearly doubled there.

I have definitely noticed prices creeping up and it is not just recent.

Everything has gone up in price so much I can’t do my shopping for under £100 and struggle to keep in under £150. I really don’t know how some people manage.