Supermarkets across the UK imposed a series of limits on cooking oil procurement due to supply problems caused by the war in Ukraine, which in turn drives up the price of popular products such as potato chips.
This is because most of the sunflower oil consumed in the country comes from Ukraine, which created a problem of scarcity and various difficulties in the supply chain. Olive and rapeseed oil were also affected.
Recent data showed that cooking oil is one of the staples whose price skyrocketed. The price of cooking oils and fats has risen by 7% since the start of the war and is almost a quarter more expensive than it was a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said on April 13.
The Tesco wholesaler, for example, only allows the purchase of three items per customer. The UK's largest retailer claims that it has a good availability of cooking oil, but on its website there are a small amount of vegetable oils out of stock.
Waitrose and Morrison, for their part, do not let them buy more than two packs per person, according to the British broadcaster Sky News. Waitrose said it was “closely monitoring the situation” and working with its suppliers “to ensure that customers continue to have cooking oil choices.”
A spokesman for Sainsbury explained that they do not plan to limit the purchase and Asda has not imposed any regulations on this matter either.
In addition to being a home cupboard staple, sunflower oil can also be found in hundreds of products, from ready meals to chips, cookies and mayonnaise.
“The war in Ukraine has affected sunflower oil supplies in the United Kingdom,” explained a spokesman for the British Retail Consortium, Tom Holder.
In addition, Holder added that the measure was temporary and aimed to “ensure availability for all”.
He also said that retailers were “working with suppliers to increase production of alternative cooking oils, to minimize the impact on consumers.”
Tom Lock, founder of The British Snack Company, which makes potato chips for sale in pubs, told The Guardian that after potatoes, its other key ingredient was sunflower oil.
“Sunflower oil is the industry standard for snacks,” said Lock, who explained that the company was forced to switch to rapeseed oil. “It's impossible to get sunflower oil in any quantity. You just can't get it. We've gotten enough rapeseed to make it to August, but we're paying triple what we paid for sunflower oil a year ago.”
Lock said it was inevitable that price increases would be passed on to the customer: “We have already made a price increase to our customers this year.”
Russian tanks and missiles besieging Ukraine also threaten the food supply and livelihoods of people in Europe, Africa and Asia who depend on the vast and fertile farmland of the Black Sea region, known as the “granary of the world”.
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