Hospitality businesses are being urged to adopt flexible menus over the coming months in the face of food price inflation and uncertainties oversupply and demand.
Questions over public demand for eating out following the easing of coronavirus restrictions, along with potential supply issues relating to Brexit and covid-19, are creating a “perfect storm” of food price inflation, according to buying specialist Lynx Purchasing.
As a consequence, it says businesses should build flexibility into their menu planning and look to focus their menus on fresh, seasonal UK produce when it’s at its best in terms of quality and availability.
As an example, Lynx suggests that due to challenges with exporting UK seafood, businesses who can use flexible menu descriptions such as ‘market fish’ or ‘catch of the day’ will find a choice of high quality, good value produce from UK seafood suppliers.
The biggest factor creating market uncertainty is reopening itself, according to Lynx Purchasing managing director Rachel Dobson. “Suppliers are having to make educated guesses about levels of demand from their hospitality customers. In terms of numbers, we know that sadly, not every business has survived the lockdown,” said Dobson.
She added that post-Brexit arrangements for food and drink imports into the UK, which haven’t yet been tested in terms of hospitality supply due to the lockdown, are also a factor along with a global shortage of shipping containers which is impacting the price of many food commodities.
“Covid is also a factor, with supplies from parts of the world that are still struggling with the pandemic likely to take longer to return to normal levels,” she added.
Other factors operators need to be aware of include a reduction in the total supply from meat and poultry producers in the UK and Ireland; increases in cattle feed prices that are expected to filter through into the cost of milk, butter and cheese; and increased paperwork involved in importing fruit and vegetables from Europe post-Brexit.
Store cupboard staples such as sugar, rice, wheat, fruit juice and vegetable oil, which are traded
globally, are particularly affected by higher transport costs, with prices likely to increase across the rest of the year.
Concerns continue to mount over a shortage of food delivery drivers in the UK with supermarkets struggling to keep shelves stocked and foodservice operators facing missed deliveries.