UK households who have olive oil in their kitchens have been issued a £16 warning. Amid rising grocery and food inflation, a two-litre bottle of supermarket olive oil - which cost £7 two years ago - will now set you back an eye-watering £16.
Tesco ’s chief executive, Ken Murphy, said last week that inflationary pressures had “lessened substantially”. But the olive oil average bottle of olive oil has gone up by 89 per cent, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures.
Stats show broccoli now costs 50 per cent more than two years ago (up from £1.66 to £2.52 a kilo), cucumbers have risen 39p, beans have risen to £1.04 and dried pasta has skyrocketed from 50p to 95p for a bag.
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Olives have been affected by groves being impacted by the hottest European Union summer on record. In Spain, the world’s largest olive oil producer, supermarket bottles have been fitted with security tags to tackle a surge in shoplifting.
In response to the ONS findings, a Tesco spokesperson added: "Our own-brand Olive Oil starts at £3.30." It comes after one customer called Melraunch shared a snap of branded and own-brand olive oils, with the caption: "Sorry but wtf is going on with the price of olive oil??".
The snap shows Tesco shoppers could fork out between £4.30 and £13.85, depending on the product they prefer. Tesco has said that price pressures on grocers have eased, as the supermarket chain reported a sales rise of 4.4 per cent to £68.2bn in the year to February 24, an increase of £2.86bn from the same period a year before.
Mr Murphy said: “However we are conscious that things are still difficult for many customers, so we have worked hard to reduce prices and have now been the cheapest full-line grocer for well over a year."
