Cost of food in Ireland goes through the roof

YOUR wallet's going to get an awful lot lighter this winter as the weekly shopping bill goes through the roof.

After months of warnings about rising world prices for food, consumers got their first bitter taste of what that'll mean for the household purse as supermarkets all succumbed to a sudden uncontrollable urge to push their prices up by identical amounts this week.

We were all just sighing a breath of relief that European bankers had left us alone for further mortgage rate hikes, when it turned out that what you gain on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts of the globalised world economy.

It isn't for luxury gourmet items that you can take or leave where the pinch on price is now being felt — instead it is literally the bread and butter staples of the mundane shopping basket.

Dairy products such as butter, cheese and milk saw double-digit price increases with the sliced pan not far behind, and retailers immediately leapt to pin the blame on everything from climate change to insatiable Chinese appetites.

There's no denying that they have a point — world grain prices have almost doubled in the last year, while dairy prices that were in the doldrums for years have also soared to record levels due to world shortages and growing demand. And even though dairy produce is one of the few areas where Ireland is completely self-reliant, that doesn't mean we can cut ourselves off as an island to escape the global pressures when it comes to prices.

A staggering 90pc of the milk we produce is exported, meaning that if prices on offer here aren't up to scratch, farmers and co-ops have the option of selling to international buyers where the thirst for dairy produce has never been more buoyant. It's all so different from a year ago when the prices paid to farmers for liquid milk had plummeted to just 27c a litre — this weekend they were seeking nearly twice that in negotiations with processors. And while global warming might seem a strange relation of pricier sliced pans, the fact that a third of American corn fields have suddenly been switched to supplying ecofriendly biofuels is directly related to the shortages of grain and rising costs already hitting home.

CSO figures have recorded food prices nudging upwards in recent months, but the latest

increases represent more of a big bang as supermarkets shadow each other in passing on the full impact to their customers.

And further increases are almost certain to nudge up Irish inflation in coming months, as everything from breakfasts cereals to grain-fed chicken and pork looks likely to rise in price.

However, economists here have warned that other food businesses might now piggyback on these price hikes by upping their own without due cause, on the basis that everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't they?

The usual appeals to consumers to shop around for the best deal can't work when the supermarkets match each other so precisely on the price of staples — meaning that calls for the Competition Authority to investigate the uncanny similarities of prices amongst the big operators have never been more crucial.