Party snacks

Smoked salmon is up a whopping 18% year on year

Christmas will be more costly this year, the Grocer 33 confirms, with festive favourites like smoked salmon, champagne, brandy butter and mince pies all more expensive in the mults.

In total, our Christmas basket cost 1.14% more this year at £127.63, compared to £126.19 in 2016 - and there have been big price rises on individual products.

A premium bottle of Champagne, for example, is 4% more expensive than last Christmas at £18.20. It follows warnings from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association warning in June that the “triple whammy impact of Brexit, inflation and alcohol duty” had pushed wine prices up to an all-time high.

Christmas pudding and mince pies meanwhile, have seen double digit price rises following a surge in the cost of ingredients like wheat, butter and raisins over the past 12 months. UK bread wheat prices were up 20% year on year in November, mostly as a result of the “decline in the value of the pound” according to Alex Waugh, director of the National Association of British and Irish Flour Millers.

Price inflation can’t be blamed entirely on Brexit, though. A 100g pack of own label smoked salmon is up a whopping 18% year on year to £3.01 on average - reflecting tighter supplies for the fish from main exporter Norway after it suffered a sea lice outbreak this year.

Our Christmas basket also reflects the surge in dairy commodities this year, following a drop in milk production across Europe and the UK. A 200g block of Blue Stilton will set shoppers back £2.32 on average, up 2.3% year on year, while a tub of brandy butter is up 0.6% to £2.12.

Retailers aren’t just putting up prices, with some supermarket cheeses outside our basket falling victim to shrinkflation. Tesco has reducing its own label baking camembert from 250g to 220g while keeping the price at £2.50, while Asda has cut its own label spreadable goats cheese from 150g to 140g [Brandview].

Other festive products have also got the chop. Tesco has also shrunk packs of own label mixed nuts from 500g to 400g, still £3, while Colman’s has slashed the size of its cranberry sauce from 265g to 165g, with the smaller jars on sale for the same promotional price of £1 in Waitrose.

Unilever said introduced the 165g jars of Colman’s sauce following feedback from shoppers that the bigger size was leading to food waste.

“We are committed to ensuring our consumers enjoy great value for money from our brands and, in response to feedback, we have significantly increased the cranberry content in our new jars,” added a spokeswoman. “The shelf price of our products is always at the sole discretion of the retailer.”

Wairose pointed out its base price for the smaller jars was 40p cheaper than the 265g version.

There still some bargains to be had in the mults this Christmas, with retailers keeping a lid on prices for turkey, gammon and pigs in blankets despite higher raw material costs this year, our Grocer 33 basket suggests.

Festive veg like Brussel Sprouts, carrots and potatoes are also all cheaper this Christmas thanks to good harvests this year, with UK growers reporting fewer issues with disease and adverse weather than in 2016.