The cost of a slice of pizza looks likely to increase as a ‘perfect storm’ hits wholesale and hospitality businesses. A poor tomato harvest in Italy, coupled with a swathe of other economic factors, means that the traditionally cheapest option for a dinner out could be about to cost more.
The situation in supermarkets has been hitting headlines in recent weeks, with shortages of fresh tomatoes across the UK. But tinned tomatoes have also seen a huge increase.
Bob Amato runs Amato Food Products in Piccadilly, and has seen the cost of tomatoes imported from Italy double. He told the Manchester Evening News: “Tomatoes are in short supply, they are out there, but the prices have gone up. The supermarkets in this country, for their own reasons, have said ‘we’re not going to pay that price’.
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“So the supermarkets aren’t buying, but other people are, so that’s why when you go to your local greengrocers, they’ve got them. They’re just more expensive. But because of Brexit, importing fresh product into this country has become increasingly difficult.”
Increasing transport costs too, caused by Brexit, have created a ‘perfect storm’, Amato says. “Tinned tomato prices have shot up,” he goes on. “We used to pay around £8 for six cans. That jumped up to £12, and they £16 at the start of the year, and now we’re paying around £18. It has been a poor harvest, so you can’t blame Brexit for all of it.
“Tomatoes are susceptible to small changes in weather, so too much rain can damage the fruit and they can then mature too quickly so they can’t get them into the canning factory quick enough. Not enough rain means the yield is much less.”
Energy costs in part due to the war in Ukraine have also meant that production of both glass and tin, the materials used to bottle or can tomatoes, has also increased significantly. And due to the canning process happening so far in advance, it means that high prices could be here to stay until at least next year.
It’s also thought that some pizza makers might start considering bringing in more ‘white pizzas’ onto the menu - pizzas without a tomato base - to ease costs.
Richard Carver, founder of Honest Crust, which has sites in Altrincham Market, Mackie Mayor and the Picturedrome in Macclesfield, has seen his tomato prices go up less - around 30%, as he imports them directly from a single grower in Italy. But he’s still having to absorb some of the cost while also putting his prices up to make up the rest.
He told the M.E.N: “18 months ago, we might have been paying about £12 a case, now we’re paying about £18.50. We did put prices up towards the end of last year, and that was in response to various other costs rising.
“Every week things keep going up, and it starts to feel a bit unsustainable. We always have a balance of white pizzas, but it won’t affect us massively in that respect. We have room in the margins for tomatoes to go up, so it’s not a desperate situation, but the people we buy them from are a single family producer.
“We could get cheaper tomatoes from a wholesaler, but we’re committed to using the best stuff we can get, and these are the best tomatoes I’ve ever had and I don’t want to compromise on that. If we had an extra white pizza on the menu more often, I guess we might save a bit, but looking at the cost of cheese, that’s gone up too.
“Whichever way you’re looking at it, you’re slightly scuppered. The price of tin has gone up because of the war. So that’s an extra cost.
He added that the energy bills for all three of his sites have just doubled. “The markets just came off their tariffs. All three sites, and that’s happened this month. These are things that are beyond our control, and they’re pushing costs out of reach.”
He’d like the government to cut VAT, as they did during the pandemic, as a short term solution to help independent businesses, which make up the vast majority of the hospitality industry.
“It would get us through the next 12 months,” he added. “Margins are always tight in the restaurant industry anyway. So to then have energy costs double, we can’t absorb the costs without putting prices up. There will be a level where people find it unpalatable. There’s only so much you can charge for a pizza.”
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