Consumers will soon see the impact of the global trade battle on the shelves of their local shops, Jim Barry, managing director, the Barry Group has said.
Irish grocery shoppers are facing a sharp jump in price on products including orange juice, bourbon and cranberries before the summer is out, amid Donald Trump's trade war.
Speaking with the Irish Independent, Barry predicted: "I think it will be between two to three months when we see the impact filter through."
He added that suppliers won't be able to absorb such hefty price increases.
"I think we'd have to explore our options," he said, when asked if the company would seek to secure similar products from outside the United States.
Barry said consumers would not want to pay substantially more for products hit by the tariffs, but he stressed the number of items on Irish supermarket shelves from the US is extremely low, with most goods being imported from within the EU.
Third Highest Prices
A Eurostat report published earlier this month revealed indicated that in 2017, price levels for consumer goods and services differed widely in the European Union (EU) and Ireland joint with Sweden has the third highest prices for goods.
Alcohol and tobacco is most expensive in Ireland (174%) followed by the United Kingdom (157%) across all EU member states, the figures showed.
Whiskey Prices Raised
Brown-Forman Corp said yesterday it will raise prices on its whiskeys, including Jack Daniel's, in some European countries to combat tariffs slapped on U.S. bourbon.
Buyers of Jack Daniel's or Woodford Reserve whiskey can expect to see the price of a standard 700 ml bottle go up by about 10%, Brown-Forman spokesman Phil Lynch said.
© 2018 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
