Tue 17th Jan 2017 - Foodservice pricing falls slightly in December but remains almost 2% up year-on-year Foodservice pricing falls slightly in December but remains almost 2% up year-on-year: Foodservice pricing fell slightly in December but remains almost 2% up year-on-year, according to new data. Price inflation on food and non-alcoholic drinks, as measured by the Foodservice Price Index, published by Prestige Purchasing and CGA Strategy, sat at 1.8% for December. When this is compared with the equivalent inflation figure of -1.1% from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), it becomes obvious foodservice is having to cope with price increases the general public are not, or at least, not yet. These year-on-year inflation figures are only part of the story. For more than two years now, foodservice pricing has moved very differently compared with retail pricing with the former taking a divergent and inflationary course. What is being seen now is food CPI playing catch up with a stabilising FPI. Looking specifically at FPI, prices are down this month, which is in line with the typical movement from November to December – due to both increased sales of goods targeted specifically at the Christmas period and festive discounting. There is an unsettled outlook for the next few months with particular volatility in salad and fruit items imported from Spain and Italy as well as salmon, cream and butter prices soaring. Prestige Purchasing head of consulting and insight Christopher Clare said: “The level of volatility currently being experienced is significant, driven by a perfect storm of key commodity challenges and political and economic uncertainty. The foodservice market typically reacts more quickly to the former given the market dynamics where the large number of individual customers have less influence on price changes being passed on.”