The Observer: "Tesco boss says cheap food era is over"

"Philip Clarke admits prices will rise as poll finds UK shoppers would pay more to back farmers"

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"Major food price rises are all but inevitable, the chief executive of Britain's biggest supermarket chain has admitted. Speaking exclusively to the Observer, Philip Clarke of Tesco, which was heavily implicated in the horsemeat scandal, said that rising global demand means the historic low prices to which British consumers have become used are now unsustainable. He said:

"Over the long run I think food prices and the proportion of income spent on food may well be going up. Because of growing demand it is going to change. It is the basic law of supply and demand."

"... The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation forecast last month that global food prices could rise by as much as 40% over the next decade, as a result of a growing middle class in countries such as China and India.

"However, Britain's supermarket bosses have proved extremely resistant to admitting economic pressures would affect the cost of groceries shopping."

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Interview:
"Cheap food, poor farms, public anger...
so what is Tesco's Philip Clarke going to do about it?"