KVI Price tracker: Sugar prices still rocketing across retailers

The price of own label sugar rose last week in Lidl and Tesco, The Grocer’s Key Value Items tracker showed.

The price of sugar was 95p in both retailers on 5 December, up from 85p last week. In Lidl this was the third price increase since the beginning of November; in Tesco it was the fourth increase since the beginning of October.

This brought Lidl and Tesco in line with Aldi and Sainsbury’s, which last week increased their prices to 95p from 85p.

The price of sugar has increased in every single retailer over the last two months, with the average price going from 65p at the start of September to 94p on 5 December.

Paul Stainton, partner at IPLC, pointed to the sugar commodity price which, according to the World Bank, rose from $0.2822 per kg (Nov 2019) to $0.4074 per kg (Nov 2022), an increase of 44%.

“This increase in the raw material, along with huge increases in energy costs, has resulted in the wave of increases at retail level,” said Stainton.

Year on year, the average price of sugar increased by a staggering 46%.

Lidl also increased the price of its own label laundry liquid, from £2.49 to £3.09.

The price of Yorkshire tea has increased too. In the three retailers tracked who carry the 210-bag packs, Aldi, Lidl and Tesco, the price increased from £5.13 to £5.70. The price did not increase in the retailers that carry the 240-bag packs.

Read more:

• Compared: the cheapest Christmas dinner deals in supermarkets

• Everyday biscuit prices rise by up to 42% in the supermarkets

• Price of eggs rising fastest in The Grocer’s new KVI price tracker

Other price increases this week were caused by Waitrose and Morrisons ending a swathe of single product promotions. In Waitrose, sultanas, San Miguel beer, chicken breasts, Comfort fabric conditioner and Nescafé all came off promotion.

All products came off promotion at the same price as they were before promotion, except Nescafé where the base price has increased by 30p. Before promotion, the price was £7. On promotion Waitrose was charging £5.50, and off promotion the price increased to £7.30.

The price increase of Nescafé was “not a surprise”, said Stainton. “Coffee prices have increased across the board this year with even value-tier own label coffee going up by over 10%.”

In Morrisons, salad tomatoes and honey-cured ham came off promotion, and were the same price as they were before promotion.