'Going up and up and up'- Why is there a 'shocking increase' in the price of food in Ireland?

Consumer expert Sinead Ryan was on NewsTalk recently to discuss the "galloping inflation" of grocery products in shopping markets across the country.

Sinead highlighted that a key reason for inflation, especially on coffee, olive oil and food grown outside of Ireland, is due to climate change and global temperatures rising. 

Sinead said: "There is no denying that price inflation has hit the grocery sector very significantly."

“After the COVID years when the cost of living crisis hit, the price of oil increased, all that started going up and up and up,” she said.

“It seemed to level out and here we are again with galloping inflation.”

Sinead told NewsTalk that the rate of inflation across the board is now at 5% which is a “shocking increase”.

“It’s adding €400 a year to the family grocery shop and at the moment, we’re paying more for lots of things and it’s really, really felt in householders’ pockets.”

Sinead said that the grocery products that are most affected by the surge in costs are beef

"Climate change has impacted on a significant number of products..and these are products that we can't typically grow in Ireland."

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"Coffee is certainly one of them; olive oil has absolutely shot up because the crops in the countryside in Spain, Italy and Greece that produce that have been hugely affected by climate change.” 

Tomatoes, rice, eggs, and orange juice are also products mentioned by Sinead that have been hit with price inflation.

“We’re seeing across Europe, temperatures are out of control.

“And that is absolutely going to impact (prices) when you add in things like the transport costs, the price of heating and lighting supermarkets.

“All that has an impact on creating these price increases.”