Empty supermarket shelves

Warning of food price rises as supermarkets struggle to fill shelves

Lorry driver shortage causes problems in food supply chain

Most of us will have noticed the gaps in supermarket shelves over recent weeks.

Now supermarkets and haulage firms have warned that the struggle to stock shelves could lead to us facing longer-term hikes in food prices.

The main reason we’re not finding the same choice of groceries on sale is a shortage of around 100,000 lorry drivers.

In order to recruit more drivers, haulage firms say they’ll have to raise their wages and as consumers we’ll probably have these costs passed on to us as at the till.

Christmas cancelled?

Supermarkets, as well as restaurants like McDonald’s and Nando’s, have been hit by the shortages as there is a similar struggle to fill meat-packing jobs.

There were even warnings that Christmas could be “cancelled” because supermarkets like to start stocking up on some festive goods around now.

So how big a crisis is this and should we be worried?

Well, it doesn’t look like prices are going to skyrocket overnight as filling the HGV driver jobs is likely to take months.

Save money on shopping

In the meantime we can get smarter with our shopping and save a bit of money before any price rises start to bite.

Getting the most out of Healthy Start vouchers and any other deals out there is another good place to start.

And getting smarter in the kitchen will also help our food budget stretch further – see our tips for money-saving meals here.

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