The rising loaf
Sir, The price of wheat has most definitely increased as a result of Brexit and difficult conditions for farmers.
UK feed wheat currently stands at £142.55/tonne (closing price on Friday), compared with £133.49 immediately post-Brexit (23 June 2016) and averages of around £126 pre-Brexit. This means prices have risen on average by around 12% from 2016 levels before the Brexit referendum till now.
In July prices even reached a peak of £156/tonne, which was a 24% increase from pre-Brexit 2016 levels. Compare this to Paris milling wheat futures where prices have seen a decline of 7%-11%.
The price of wheat is on the rise but this is not the sole factor in determining the price of bread - costs of other ingredients and the competitive actions of retailers in response to a difficult trading environment also have key roles to play.
Sandra Boga, deputy head of bulk commodities at Informa’s Agribusiness Intelligence
A misfire, minister
Sir, First and foremost I’d like to applaud the dairy industry for its genuine intentions to champion an original marketing campaign based around a spoof Department of Dairy Related Wholesome Affairs.
Thoughtful above-the-line campaigns assembled on tight budgets (reportedly £1.2m) are never easy and it’s reassuring to see that they have avoided the usual stumbling blocks of ‘cheesy’, pretty girls or soulless celebrities to solve the indisputable truth that today’s ‘millennials’ are simply not connecting with dairy or breakfast.
And yet… this is the exact moment the campaign goes awry. For one thing what lazy ad design still peddles the emperor’s clothing of ‘millennials’, a lazy/trite umbrella phrase that ignorantly seeks to shoehorn a significant sized demographic into one pigeonhole (people really aren’t that one-dimensional).
Secondly, at time when trust in politicians of any political colour to get anything right has never been at a lower ebb, who would base a campaign around a fictitious government department?
Ian Hills, founder, Purple Pilchard
Anti-sellout is ‘rebel’??
Sir, Being passionate about a lifetime ownership and mutuality of a member-owned company is now regarded as rebellious??.
Only 47% of the membership actually voted, yet those who voted in favour have potentially damaged independent retailing forever. But they aren’t rebels?
Was a sale really necessary? Trading alliances exist that could have rewarded the independent sector far greater than through a simple sellout.
Peter Sykes, Colin Sykes Foodstores
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