Roberts on food prices: We could be in for a five-year adjustment

The higher prices expected to settle in at the beginning of next year could be around for the long haul. Super Value owner Rupert Roberts said he personally believes the country is in for a five-year adjustment.

Prices have been soaring in recent months, fueled by a global supply chain shortage.

Last week, the US government said its consumer price index was up 6.2 percent from a year ago — the biggest 12-month jump since 1990, as reported by the Associated Press.

Roberts said while he has worked hard to keep prices stable for now in his local food stores, it will be increasingly difficult over the medium term – about six months out – to maintain current prices.

“We’re watching the prices and we’re trying to feed this nation and do the right thing. Before Christmas we’re trying to hold prices. We started buying early, we knew that the supply chain was going to prevent some things,” he said in a recent interview with Guardian Business.

“For example, I was on the phone with a buyer and we were talking to a broker in England and before us he was talking to Thailand. He was talking about mackerel and in our last order was $19 CIF (cost, insurance, and freight) and he was quoting us $32 CIF, a 39 percent increase. Of course, that won’t be here until after Christmas. You’re going to get a little now, but your big inflation will come after the first of the year. we’re trying to supply the country, when we knew this was happening, we started trying to put in a six-month inventory to go up to summer. But what’s going to happen in January, February and March, we don’t know.”

Roberts continued, “I ask my friends in the United States what’s happening, if this is a six-month thing, if this is until they get rid of Biden, but personally I think we’re into a five-year adjustment. It’s going to take five years to break.”

In the latest fiscal snapshot for the first quarter of the 2021/2022 fiscal year, the government said although inflation remains relatively contained now, it is projected to rise in the near term as global markets rebound.

While the cost of groceries and other items have remained constant, already the price of gasoline has increased locally, tipping at $5.18 per gallon this week.

Roberts said it’s not just food items that are seeing a spike in prices. He pointed to higher paper and plastic products, explaining that popular juices like Sunny Delight could be in short supply, not because the product isn’t available, but because the plastic used to make the bottles is still on shipping containers on the West Coast of the United States.

“And let’s say if the ships keep coming into the West Coast, those ships don’t necessarily have food, they have products that make glass, that make plastic and we are running into that too,” he said.

“So the product is going to be short because the packaging materials aren’t easily available anymore.”

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/roberts-on-food-prices-we-could-be-in-for-a-five-year-adjustment/