As the Iran war pushes up costs, Princes has fired the starting gun on price rises. Princes commercial chief Giuseppe Mastrolia gave retailers nine working days’ notice of a minimum 5% price hike across all its products from 1 April, The Grocer revealed last week. Notably, it dispensed with the usual 12-week negotiation period.

In a letter to Princes’ customers in the UK and Europe, Mastrolia said it faced a 50%-60% increase in energy and fuel prices, a 40%-120% rise in shipping, logistics and insurance costs, a 10%-25% hike in raw materials and packaging costs, and a 20%-40% spike in ­agricultural inputs and fertilisers.

“The closure of the Strait of Hormuz…  is generating unprecedented cost pressures across the entire food and drink industry,” Mastrolia wrote.