Food boss says ‘perfect storm’ could cause supermarket price hikes

Aussies worried about rising supermarket prices could be in for more pain, with one major food manufacturer issuing a grim warning.

Australians could see the prices of all supermarket products rise by 10 to 20 per cent, according to the boss of one of Australia’s biggest food manufacturers.

Hussein Rifai, the chairman of SPC, told 3AW on Wednesday he suspects the costs of his company’s 150-plus products will all be going up.

But he warned the price hikes will impact more than just food.

“It will go into other commodities; it’ll go into personal products,” Mr Rifai said.

“I would expect it will impact everything that you buy from a supermarket, whether you’re buying q-tips, whether you’re buying food, whether you’re buying cleaning products.”

SPC Chairman Hussein Rifai says the prices of his company’s 150-plus products will all likely go up. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

Mr Rifai called the current situation a “double whammy”, with the industry grappling with the effects of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine.

“(the pandemic) disrupted the global supply chain quite massively, even before the war started,” he said.

“You’ve got the war between Russia and Ukraine, which impacted the oil, and means the oil price has gone up … and impacted the food because Ukraine used to produce a lot of the food that went into Europe.

“In a globalised economy, when you have a war in Europe like this, it’s bound to have an impact on the rest of the planet.”

The Covid-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine have led to an increase in supermarket prices. Picture: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images / AFP

Mr Rifai, who’s personally been in the food business since the mid-1980s, said he hasn’t seen anything like this before.

“I haven’t seen the unfortunately negative perfect storm that we’re having right now ever in my lifetime – I’m 62 years old,” he said.

Originally published as Food boss says ‘perfect storm’ could cause supermarket price hikes