Irish food and drink businesses are experiencing inflationary pressures across most cost headings due to a combination of macro external factors, research shows.
This includes Brexit, COVID, supply chain constraints and raw material inputs, according to Food Drink Ireland (FDI).
The Ibec group that represents the food and drink sector said it surveyed member companies in July to assess the extent and impact of input cost increases.
The survey found that the majority of food and drink companies experienced substantial increases across a range of inputs over the last 12 months in areas such as saw materials, energy, packaging, transport/shipping and also insurance.
Lower but still significant increases were experienced for other inputs including 37% experiencing 5-20% cost increases for water/wastewater and 30% experiencing 5-20% cost increases for labour, the research showed.
'Very Relevant Or Relevant'
According to FDI respondents were very clear in the main factors they attributed the input costs to.
Most notably, the survey showed that 100% considered Brexit very relevant or relevant.
96% of those surveyed considered COVID impacts very relevant or relevant and also 96% considered global supply chain constraints very relevant or relevant.
81% of the respondents considered domestic supply chain constraints very relevant or relevant.
And finally 78% considered raw material inputs very relevant or relevant.
All businesses operating throughout the COVID pandemic have had to make significant investments to adjust operations in line with public health guidelines, the group said.
Brexit Affects Trading Costs
Brexit has added significantly to trading costs including transport & logistics and additional administration both for trade with the UK but also for trade with the EU using the land-bridge, FDI said.
Transport costs have also been affected by the major driver shortage impacting that sector and for international business, the cost of freight containers has exploded since the beginning of the year, it added.
Food businesses are also identifying strong increases in utility costs, in particular energy and also in packaging.
Paul Kelly, FDI Director said respondents expected a continuation of inflationary trends in the months ahead and that this would impact on margins and competitiveness in export markets.
He called for a range of measures to offset these impacts including a rapid roll out to the sector of funding from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve.
Kelly also suggests a renewed focus across Government on reducing the cost of doing business in Ireland.
2021 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. For more Supply Chain news click here. Click sign up to subscribe to Checkout.
