Are food prices rising?

Muahahaha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118718903#Comment_118718903

There was also the period during the recession when Aldi/Lidl were selling decent rib eye steaks on their Super 6 meats for 2 euro each, iirc that was their cheapest ever. Looking back they must have been using them as a loss leader to drive footfall in the door. They often had ads matching them with red wines so probably made up for it that way and people buying other items.

Since then the grading of their cheapest rib eyes seems to have gone down a bit while the price went up and while theyre still ok they are not as good as they once were. Youve to go for the premium ones to get something really nice.

zom

"Gone are the days of yellow pack Tesco food. The modern generation are clueless."

And they will stay cluesless - their parents (who mostly know yellow packs) will eat wood chips just to make their offspring happy and not whinging in Social Media. It is not what you can afford, but how much vocal you are in demanding..

patnor1011

Not to be pessimistic but did you notice how our masters went from casually mentioning food prices and availability in the times to come to almost daily reminding people about what we should expect?

Pretty serious times are ahead since what we eat today is mostly from last year harvest. A lot of stuff will not be planted this year and yields will go down rather significantly due to fuel and fertilizer shortages. Coupled with export bans it is hard to predict what or how we will be eating by the end of this year and the next one. Current generation which do not plan further than to next day shopping is not capable to understand this. Not only that, a lot of the people are not able to even try to build up some reserves of the most basic stuff due to putting preferences on booking some nice holiday for this summer.

Black Sheep

There was a price correction in our food prices coming in any case, which would have accelerated due to climate in the years ahead. The war is going to exponentially ratchet that up.

No one is going to starve in Ireland, but the reality is that yes, food prices are going to see further significant rises and it's going to the same elsewhere in Europe. It'll be interesting to see what major interventions the State makes in all of this, but there seems little doubt we're going to see the sort of large scale moves that we saw made during Covid also, when they're necessary. Things that were once off the table are likely to come on the table again quickly, such as fracking in the U.K.

Recently in the public arena we have seen the re-opening of debates about Irish defence policy. I think that actually that debate needs to be put behind a debate about what it will take to make us food and energy secure. The three areas are related, of course, but food and energy are two that we can address easier than defence.

patnor1011

I do not know why people still feel somehow optimistic. Food price correction due to climate?

I am sorry but "no one is going to starve in Ireland" is strange statement mainly due to fact that there are already people who do not get enough food. The only intervention state will be doing is that they will introduce food vouchers like Macron is thinking of doing that in France. There already are protests in several EU states because of rising food and energy costs.

I do have feeling that most of the people underestimate the situation due to lets say lack of experience.

We used to buy chicken fillets 25 in a tray for 23 euro. When it went to 25 we thought its OK prices mostly go up.

They were 30 this Saturday and Monday when butcher opened they were 34.

Black Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118820463#Comment_118820463

That's very interesting. Please, share your experience with us!

How soon do you think we will see deaths by starvation in Ireland related to these price increases?

tabby aspreme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118820463#Comment_118820463

Chicken and pork/bacon products will probably have the greatest price increases and may become scarce, as pig and poultry production are entirely dependant on cereals

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118829249#Comment_118829249

And chicken and pork have both been outragously cheap for decades - as evidenced buy people routinely being able to afford to buy only chicken breasts and eschewing the rest of the animal.

Imagine if most people only bought fillet steak and no other cuts of beef!

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118829114#Comment_118829114

Starvation is not the only thing which may happen to people who would not be able to afford food due to rising prices and lack of supply. It is rather complex like even now we see obesity and resulting severe health complications simply because people on low income can not afford to finance balanced diet and end up eating cheap processed junk food.

But if we go back to food scarcity which is coming no matter what you think then people again will go for cheapest stuff and result will be malnutrition.

We already see deaths caused by bad diet and malnutrition. This may be more common by the end of this year and the next. Now we still eat last year harvest while this year's one and the next do not look very exciting due to current situation.

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118829249#Comment_118829249

I understand. My example was only to illustrate that shortages did not even started yet and prices are already exploding.

A lot of basic staple stuff went up 20% and more in less than a month.

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118832666#Comment_118832666

None of us can tell the future. I don't know what is going to happen with food prices anymore than you do.

But the current price increases that we are seeing are on things that, imo, were unsubstainably cheap in recent years, anyway. Perhaps it will filter into other things but I see no reason to panic until there is a reason to panic.

I think obesity and poor nutrition are very complex issues and are not simply down to affordability. Do you think that simply giving the poorest people in society more money would improve these things? I don't.

I don't think the problem is that nutritious food is too expensive, it's that processed, unhealthy food is too cheap.

Manach

Yes. Both in the price for the weekly messages as well as paying the same price for less quantity (i.e. smaller portions).

the beer revolu

I love the Irish use of "messages"! I haven't heard it in a long time.

Black Sheep

Malnutrition, particularly as an issue affecting over 65s, people with addictions and the seriously ill will always be with us irrespective of food security. We collect quite good data on it which is available via the HSE. I think most people would agree starvation is a problem of a different order, however, compared to malnutrition and related health outcomes in a general sense.

But I’m glad you seem to agree outright deaths by starvation are unlikely in Ireland in anything like the near term.

The price of meat in particular is absolutely going to continue to rise, and there will be related challenges across the board, no one has been suggesting otherwise throughout this thread.

Large parts of our poorest exist on highly processed junk food, snacks and takeaways. Rising prices may hit them hard, but from the grumblings from politicians/journalists etc it looks like welfare payments will be raised to match inflation, so there will be no change in their food habits, at the expense of the midddle classes again.

One would have hoped that inflation would have forced then to change their eating habits.

And i do see starvation. A lot of kids brought up on chicken nuggets and chips will point blank refuse alternatives and their parents won,t force the issue

babyducklings1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118832654#Comment_118832654

People will manage. Doubt that the population is going to die of hunger seriously! We have more food choice than ever in fact sometimes so much that a trip to the supermarket is over whelming with all the different products. We don’t even need half that stuff. We’ve been spoilt for choice for at least the last twenty years. As long as people have the basics and know how to cook.

Danzy

People here will not Starve, we have a great climate for growing food, certain food.

It will probably double in price, may be more, that's based on input prices, food tends to follow the price of nitrogen.

A tonne of CAN in Ireland was 205 18 months ago, it is now 1140 and rising.

That's a global story. Price quadrupling means you are in a less affected country.

Factories are reducing fertilizer now because of cost.

lazeedaisy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118833166#Comment_118833166

You don't seem to notice that the price hikes in food, stretch some families already. So what they have choice, that's not the problem, there are families out there, cannot stretch to the cheapest choice, I know people struggling to put one hot meal a day on the table, they rely on school to feed breakfast, there is huge food poverty in some areas, if we've had so much choice for the past 20 years, why is their malnutrition in the country? Whilst the population may not die of hunger, it is causing major problems, open your eyes

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118833117#Comment_118833117

Supposing the increasing prices of poor nutrition food will change habits is as misguided as thinking that increasing people's income will change habits for the better.

Teaching fairly large parts of our society about food, nutrition, cooking and the importance of these things, will take time and effort. Food prices changing won't help, imo.

To be honest, when I hear "the middle classes will pay for it again", I just switch off. It's such a hackneyed rhetoric and provides no solutions, just whinging.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118833166#Comment_118833166

Think where a lot of the variety comes fro. The year round out of season fruit and veg comes from mainly Israel, north african countries(egypt being the biggest contributor) and Spain. Egypt population is reliant on Ukraine grain(80%). Their government has just suspended export of food. As grain prices rise Egyptian farmers will abandon the cash generating crops and switch to wheat to supply its domestic market. We will see very expensive importants and a switch to seasonal Irish and european produce. Tbh having big plump strawberries in december is kinda wrong.

As alluded to earlier, the typical Irish consumer who only shops week to week and doesnt buy/plan ahead on a seasonal basis is in for a very big shock

babyducklings1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118833241#Comment_118833241

Thanks very much but my eyes are open. Malnutrition is a complex subject. We are also a very obese nation with too much consumption of junk food. Perhaps getting people back to the basics might help in reducing our ever increasing obesity problem. And people need to learn how to cook. That’s another issue in this country though it’s barely mentioned As it stands a nutritious hot meal can be put together very cheaply in Ireland. That’s the truth. Go to certain countries in Africa then come back and say how bad it is here in terms of the availability and access to food stuffs. We are spoilt.