Many major UK supermarkets like Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and Iceland have enforced limits on the amount of cooking oil that shoppers can purchase.
Supplies of olive oil, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil have been affected by the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine - both of which are key suppliers of these oils.
This has in turn put a lot of pressure on food manufacturers, due to which retailers have decide to ration the amount of cooking oil you can purchase.
Here's what you need to know about the reason behind the cooking oil shortage and what limits supermarkets have placed on its purchase.
Why is there a shortage of cooking oil?
In recent times, there have been several product shortages, mainly due to panic-buying as a result of Brexit or Covid. This time the cooking oil shortage is because of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Both of these countries are key suppliers of sunflower and rapeseed oil, which are not only used in cooking oil but several food products like mayonnaise and crisps.
Due to the destruction of Ukraine in the ongoing conflict with Russia, there has been uncertainty over the planting of both sunflower and rapeseed as well as halts to shipments of these products.
This has resulted in both sunflower and rapeseed oil being in shortage in UK supermarkets, with alternatives like olive oil and palm oil also struggling to keep up with high demands.
For palm oil, Indonesia - the world's biggest producer of the oil - has announced it will impose an export ban on the product starting Thursday April 28, which is set to hike prices of all cooking oils worldwide.
Iceland boss Mr Walker explained: "If you look at commodity prices, sunflower oil has gone up 1,000% in terms of the commodity cost in the market, palm oil (up) 400% and then there is things like wheat, 50%, fertiliser, 350%.
He added: "These are all unintended consequences of the war in Ukraine that is affecting supermarkets."
What limits have supermarkets put on purchasing cooking oil?
Major supermarkets in the UK have begun rationing olive, sunflower and rapeseed oils as of Saturday, April 23.
- Tesco (three items per customer)
- Morrisons (two items)
- Waitrose (two items)
- Iceland (one item per shopper)
Shortages of cooking oil and alternatives have been seen online on Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi and Lidl as well, though these retailers haven't brought in any restrictions on the amount you can buy yet.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which represents the country’s biggest food retailers, has described the rationing as a temporary measure "to ensure availability for everyone".
The organisation added that its members are "working with suppliers to ramp up production of alternative cooking oils, to minimise the impact on consumers".
Tesco, which isn't represented by the BRC, put out its own statement saying that though they have " good availability" of cooking oils and alternatives both in store and online, the temporary buying limit has been introduced to "make sure all of our customers can continue to get what they need".
