Food prices 'set to come down'

Hard-pressed families can expect to see the price of food coming down over the coming months, the managing director of Waitrose said.

Mark Price said a combination of a good summer vegetable harvest and a good global wheat harvest would see price reductions on some products and a levelling-off on others.

He admitted that the price of meat was continuing to rise but said supermarkets were prepared to absorb the cost rather than pass it on to shoppers.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Price said: "Certainly, if you look at vegetables, the prices there are coming down.

"Wheat prices across the world are stabilising because, generally speaking, harvests across the world have been much better this year.

"It's still true to say that, in livestock, prices are going up, so in the UK what we are seeing is beef prices up by 25%, lamb by as much as 50% coming into Waitrose, but we are not passing that on to the consumer - we are absorbing those costs and our margin is reducing as a consequence.

"So as far as the consumer is concerned, what they are going to start seeing now is deflation in some areas, and already we are seeing it in vegetables.

"They are going to start seeing prices levelling off in the next 12 months as either the retailers are absorbing some of that cost or the food costs in the supply chain start coming down."

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