22 May, 2008 – The UK's leading finance minister is to hold urgent talks today with supermarket chiefs over the threat soaring food prices poses to the national economy.
Chancellor Alistair Darling summoned leaders from the UK’s major supermarket chains, the National, Farmers’ Union, commodity traders and the British Retail Consortium to discuss tackling the problem.
The emergency summit comes as the Centre for Economics and Business Research claims rising demand for agricultural commodities will push UK food prices up by 5% a year for the next decade. Food inflation in the UK’s big four supermarkets is said to be currently running at between 4-6%.
The meeting signals the UK’s growing concern on food price rises after Darling last week urged the European Union to overhaul its system of agricultural subsidies and tariffs.