Food prices in the UK have reached their highest level in five years after last year's extreme weather and global grain prices.

Due to last year’s weather, farmers struggled with planting delays caused by the February Hartmouth anticyclone with unusually low temperatures and heavy snowfall in large areas, followed by rains that caused flooding in some areas in April, and then prolonged summer heat, affecting crop yields.

As a result, shoppers are currently seeing a significant increase in prices for a number of British crops such as onions, potatoes and cabbage, while rising global cereal prices have increased the cost of bread and cereals, which have contributed to food inflation up to 2.5 % in March, compared with 1.6% in February, which is the highest inflation rate since November 2013.

In general, price inflation in stores accelerated to 0.9% in March from 0.7% in February, the highest level of inflation since March 2013. Despite the fact that prices for non-food products remained at the same level as in March last year, inflation for fresh food products rose from 1.7% in February to 1.9% in March, and prices for food products in the world rose by 3.4%, which is a significant jump compared with the February figure of 1.5%.

“Rising global commodity prices and adverse weather events put upward pressure on wholesale prices for many food products, which, combined with an increase in the cost of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, led to an increase in food inflation from 1.6% in February to 2.5% in March.“However, the big danger of rising food inflation is still the risks associated with the chaotic Brexit, which will lead to higher prices and less choice on the shelves,” said Helen Dickinson, Executive Director of the British Retail Consortium.