Beans to cost more as higher food prices begin to bite

They used to be the cheap staple of student diets. But now baked beans have fallen victim to the spiralling global cost of raw materials for food manufacturers: Batchelors has announced that the price of a tin of baked beans is to increase by 6 per cent.

Batchelors blamed the heatwaves in southern Europe and the US, wet weather and flash floods in northern Europe and the worldwide shift in crop use from producing food to generating biofuels for its rising input costs. It said that it had no option but to increase the prices it charges to wholesalers and retailers.

The price of importing beans from the US has increased by 19 per cent this year, while tomato puree costs are up by 15 per cent.

Fruit juices are also set to increase in price as the unseasonably wet summer in northern Europe damaged crop yields.

The price of apple juice has gone up by 31 per cent this year, while orange juice prices increased by 120 per cent in 2006, according to Batchelors. The rising costs will add 6 per cent to the trade price of its fruit juice range, which includes the Sqeez and Amigo brands.

The price of Picnic canned tuna, another Batchelors' brand, is likely to increase by 20 per cent. Changing international regulations on fish catches and the erratic weather have resulted in low tuna stocks this year and this has forced up tuna prices for manufacturers by 35 per cent.

Heavy rain in Thailand - one of the main sources of canned pineapple for the Irish market - and a soft fruit crop-destroying heatwave in the Mediterranean will push up the price of its Lustre canned fruit by 7 to 15 per cent.

Batchelors' price increases follow a move by Jacob Fruitfields to increase the price of its biscuits, jams and sauces by 10-12 per cent, and Odlums' decision in August to raise flour prices to its customers by 30 per cent.

Batchelors' price increases come in for the trade by mid-November and it remains to be seen if retailers will pass on the full brunt to consumers.

However, it looks as if there will be little respite for beans-on-toast fans: the Irish Bread Bakers' Association has warned that the price of a loaf of bread is set to rise by between 40 to 60 per cent after a doubling in wheat costs on global commodity markets.