Budding Nigellas could soon be paying more for goose fat.

Reduced availability from Eastern Europe has already led to a 50% rise in UK wholesale prices and if supplies did not improve, prices could soon end up 100% higher than last year, speciality food distributor RH Amar has warned. This was likely to filter through to retail prices.

Goose fat had become more expensive at wholesale because eastern European producers, particularly in Poland, were increasingly looking to sell whole birds into the German market instead of supplying goose fat as a standalone product, an RH Amar spokeswoman said.

Recent increases in the commodity prices of corn and maize, which were traditional bird feeds, had also contributed towards the higher price of the fat, she added.

In addition, livestock owners who were prepared to sell goose fat on its own were calling for higher prices to reflect the complexity of breeding and rearing geese, which took more care than raising other poultry.

Goose fat is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, driven by celebrity chefs such as Nigella Lawson.

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