Brits are paying significantly more for houmous this Veganuary following price hikes across the major mults, research by The Grocer reveals.
Average prices for supermarket houmous have increased by a whopping 12% since January 2017, following increases over the past 12 months [Brand View 52 w/e 9 January 2018].
Tesco this week hiked prices on Me Too! houmous, adding 12p to the price of a 250g pot, now £1.69, and 19p to the brand’s 500g pots, now £2.69. It also increased 250g pots of Yarden houmous from £1.87 to £1.89 and 400g pots from £2.94 to £2.99.
It follows price hikes on own-label houmous by most major supermarkets at the end of last year. A 310g pot is now £1.47 on average across the mults, up 33p on January 2017.
Suppliers have been squeezed by a global shortage of key ingredient chickpeas, which has pushed up costs.
“Chickpea prices have increased during 2017 and remain high,” said Tasneem Backhouse, joint managing director at EHL Ingredients. “Demand is strong from every market and currently there isn’t enough supply to go around. This is driven by poor crops in some of the main producing origins over the past 12 months.”
Wholesale prices for US chickpeas have risen 31.5% over the past two years, from £0.47/kg in January 2016 to £0.69/kg in January 2018, after peaking at £0.71/kg in November 2017 [Mintec].
Suppliers stressed retail prices were at the discretion of retailers. “We have a quality product which we believe is worth paying more for, however we do need to strike a balance which ensures we are competitively priced and makes us accessible to as many consumers as possible,” said Ramona Hazan, founder of Me Too! “We would not want lose customers as a result of retail price inflation.”
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