Home   >   Family Finances   >   More food price hikes to affect families this summer.

More food price hikes to affect families this summer.

By on July 1, 2022

Our food bill has been creeping higher since the last food increase announcements in October last year. With food and energy prices going up at the same time, my family is beginning to feel the pinch even more than it did the years prior to the pandemic.

As if last autumn’s major price adjustments on coffee, wheat, electricity and others were not enough, Japan’s Teikoku Data Bank said Friday,  major food manufacturers plan to raise the price of 4,229 food items between July and August as a result of  soaring price on raw materials. (Prices will rise for 1,588 items in July and 2,641 items in August.)

Yamazaki Baking Co.’s next bread price increase starts July 1st following its last price adjustment in January. This will be the 6th time for cooking oil manufacturer Nisshin Oillio Group Ltd. to raise its price since Spring last year.

While these increases might sound negligible for some, they add up quickly for a family of five or a single parent. Suddenly, ice cream you couldn’t live without is no longer a priority.

Shrinkflation

Food manufacturers know there is risk to a price increase.  So for consumers not to feel the pinch,  companies use a different inflation tactic called “shrinkflation” by decreasing the quantity of an item but keep the same costs. A bag of  chips for example may still cost the same but are less full.

Shrinkflation doesn’t  apply only to downsizing but degrading a product’s quality to beat margin pressure.

We are very picky about coffee. Lavazza which sold for around 800 yen used to be our go-to brand for decades until inflation creeped in last autumn. It now costs 1,596 yen on Amazon. Fortunately, we found a Japanese brand and a close substitute to the Colombian-Brazil arabica grade beans we got used to. The taste was slightly less robust than Lavazza but for 600 yen a 300-gram bag, we couldn’t complain.

But even the Japanese coffee brand – not only has marked its price up, it also  downsized the quality of beans from Colombia-Brazil grade to Brazil and Ethiopia beans.

How to make the price pinch less painful

While price increases at food stores are happening or about to happen in intervals, it would be best to wean yourself off  a particular brand and be willing to change your buying habits. Buy generic items.  Aeon stores offer a line of “TOP VALUE”  no brand goods that families buy repeatedly such as cooking oil, spices, sauces, detergents, etc…  Be willing to bake your own bread to save a few yen, or cook dishes that you can freeze and reheat longer.

At the rate by which the Japanese yen is weakening against the US dollar, there is no clear indication the momentum of price increases will subside after autumn this year.

Most countries like Japan that relies on most materials from other countries to produce products will be feeling the pinch of a weaker yen which will then be transferred to consumers or end users.

 

Is there a fraudulent food labeling happening in Japan?

 

About Julie Wilson