Availability concerns remain relatively low
27 November 2023Consumers have experienced a long period of high food inflation and weaker than expected availability.
Fortunately, food inflation is declining, though remains relatively high. Availability concerns are now lower. However, system weaknesses which helped create these issues remain in place.
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In the latest consumer research conducted for IGD (17-19 November 2023), more than half of adults (54%) experienced shortages of some food and groceries in-store or online recently. This has increased marginally since last month (52%)
Availability concerns remain at one of the lowest levels since August 2021.
Availability concerns have increased for fresh produce (24% compared to 20% last month and a peak of 52% in March). In contrast, concerns continue to decline for dairy (16% compared to 19% last month).
Availability concerns continue to be highest in Northern Ireland (72%). This is followed by the South West (64%) and the North West (61%), compared to Wales (43%).
The availability concerns in Northern Ireland follow a warning by the British Retail Consortium that operational issues with the Windsor Framework “will need to be resolved quite quickly otherwise we would see an impact in terms of choice consumers have in Northern Ireland.”