UK Food & Beverage Industry Thermometer: From the Frying Pan into the Fire? Here is hoping not!

So here we are in April 2022. It has been exactly 2 years since the world flipped on its head. Just as things looked like we were beginning to soar above it all we have 2 very important contributor countries to the stability of the world’s economy at war. Sitting at this precipice of uncertainty once again is all too eerily familiar.

The decades-old symbol for the performing arts—the laughing mask and the crying mask side by side—comes to mind. Until we have seen the performance play out we have no idea whether this is going to be a tragedy or a comedy.   

This is the place we find ourselves once again. There’s good and bad news. Sprinkled with a lot of speculation with not much knowledge of how to take the next steps. Only, that we were here 24 months ago. The very same uncertainty, and somehow we survived, so at least we have that familiarity. 

From the 2014 study by Psychology Today, it was determined that most people (78%) want to hear the bad news first when asked to choose which to hear first, so here is what we have on what is happing currently in the F&B markets.  

Globally, it is now common knowledge that fossil fuels are Russia’s biggest export to the world, mostly Northern Hemisphere countries. Many of these countries have now imposed sanctions on Russia. They are looking at the other sources that service the rest of the world. Although everyone is denying this as the cause, a bidding war is playing out behind closed doors. This is shooting prices up. Then we have Ukraine. As the breadbasket supplying much of the globe, including Africa, with base metals, agriculture including grains, machinery, and mechanical appliances; we can see why the financial soothsayers in the Northern Hemisphere (who are a little more directly affected) are all saying the same thing, “Brace yourselves!” 

In the United Kingdom things are heating up and the impacts are playing out as we live and breathe. Some changes we are seeing already taking place in the United Kingdom, apart from fuel price increases, are the increase in maize meal, white bread, and tinned produce prices. This is having a knock-on effect on flour, pasta, porridge, and other breads. We are already experiencing knock-on effects as import costs rise for products like cooking oils and palm oils, among others.

A March 28th article by Bloomberg states that in India, where this impact is already unfolding, we are seeing street vendors no longer being able to afford cooking oil and as most street food is fried, this is affecting their very livelihood and a shift to steamed snacks is becoming adopted. So too, bakers in Ivory Coast are considering cutting the size of their baguettes in half with smaller topping sizes. Let us not mention what might happen to everyone’s beloved pizza. 

What is encouraging to see is just how fast markets are adapting to compensate for what is happening. We do have our resilience and above-mentioned knowledge that we have been here and finding solutions to new rapid-fire problems has been our daily existence during the pandemic. Humans never seem to run out of the capacity to evolve, shift and recalculate when faced with a challenge. It is this that will get us through yet another setback such as this one. 

So, what does the data say?

In January and February this year, just as the world was opening, our food and beverage segment customers here at Skynamo showed a remarkable bounce back. Our F&B partner customers placed orders worth more than any month in the past 26 months, and the combined totals for January and February almost surpassed the entire total for 2020 and reached just under half of 2021’s total. Our Skynamo Industry Thermometer showed an encouraging bounce back for our food and beverage customers.  

So here we are. No telling what the next 3 months, or indeed, the rest of the year has in store. But one thing is for sure. We face this together, and we are now well trained. 

Learn how Skynamo can help your field sales team maintain momentum and gain a competitive advantage as you navigate current economic pressures. Let’s have a quick chat…