{"id":535650,"date":"2026-03-12T14:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/535650\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T14:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T14:00:10","slug":"food-bills-for-millions-in-britain-to-rise-as","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/535650\/","title":{"rendered":"Food bills for millions in Britain ‘to rise’ as\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of households in Britain<\/a> face higher food<\/a> prices, experts are warning, as the economic fall-out from Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> Iran<\/a> war escalates.<\/p>\n

With the cost of oil<\/a> having again topped $100 (\u00a375) a barrel, energy bills could jump later this year if the crisis does not ease.<\/a><\/p>\n

Stock markets have been hit and the International Energy Agency said the war was creating the \u201clargest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market\u201d<\/a> as more ships were struck by Iranian drones in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iran has threatened to target British-linked tankers<\/a> seeking to pass through the strait.<\/p>\n

Amid the turmoil in global markets, warnings were growing that food prices could go up.<\/p>\n

Dr Jonathan Owens, senior lecturer in operations management at Salford University, said: \u201cAlthough the UK imports very little oil from the Gulf, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is likely creating significant ripple effects across our food supply chain. <\/p>\n

\u201cTransport, packaging, and distribution costs are all expected to rise, ultimately hitting consumers through higher grocery bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom Bradshaw, president of the National Farmers\u2019 Union, held talks on Wednesday with Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds and farming minister Dame Angela Eagle on the growing crisis as the cost of fertiliser has doubled to nearly \u00a3600 a tonne.<\/p>\n

Petrol prices are rising (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary of State recognised that volatility in the global energy market has a huge impact on our food supply chains,\u201d Mr Bradshaw said afterwards.<\/p>\n

As the war entered its 13th day, he added: \u201cThe impact on food production and food price inflation will depend on what happens over the coming weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor at Allianz, stressed that Iran choking off the use of the Strait of Hormuz by tankers was already having an impact which would take at least a month to undo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take time to get the tankers in the right place,\u201d he told Times Radio, with around 1,000 vessels stuck in the Gulf, including 80 to 90 with British interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take time to start production. You talk about four to six weeks, even if the straits are cleared today.\u201d<\/p>\n

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher warned that the world was facing a \u201cmoment of great peril\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cOn the Strait of Hormuz, I\u2019m really worried about food costs, energy costs, fertilizer costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m worried that further escalation will damage other supply routes.\u201d<\/p>\n

A ship hit in the Strait of Hormuz (ROYAL THAI NAVY\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Trump has defended the military action, insisting that the Hormuz Straits were in \u201cgreat shape\u201d even though three vessels were attacked in the waterway, a key artery for global oil supplies, within 24 hours.<\/p>\n

He also claimed that the Iranian regime was being destroyed, despite US intelligence reportedly not sharing this view.<\/p>\n

Democrat senator Chris Murphy accused the president of \u201cgross incompetence\u201d for going to war with Iran \u201cwith no plan\u201d to keep open the vital strait. <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cNow Iran is laying mines, global oil shipping is paralyzed, gas prices are skyrocketing and food prices are close behind.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of households in Britain face higher food prices, experts are warning, as the economic fall-out from Donald…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,1348,99,3355,164,3359,3353,44,3356,3354,3357,3358,1346],"class_list":["post-535650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breaking-news","tag-business","tag-daily-news","tag-economy","tag-global-news","tag-inkl","tag-news","tag-news-app","tag-news-headlines","tag-news-today","tag-today-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}