The spring 2017 edition of the Lynx Purchasing Market Forecast analysed a typical basket of goods and found a 9% year on year increase between March 2016 and March 2017.
Rachel Dobson, managing director of Lynx Purchasing, said: “We’re urging operators to give their menus a thorough ‘spring clean’ in order to identify dishes where they can build in a defence against the impact of rising costs.
“For example, the widely-reported problems with salmon supplies, which are expected to mean volatile prices and smaller fillets until the autumn, favours operators who can keep their offer flexible in terms of the fish species they use, using specials boards to highlight the best fish, both the British catch and imported varieties.
“With British meat in higher demand, driven in part by the rising cost of imports, switching between different cuts according to availability will help to maintain margin on for key dishes such as a Sunday roast.
“There are also opportunities to reinvent traditional slow-cooked dishes making use of less popular cuts, while still engaging customers with updated recipes and upmarket presentation.”
The spring 2017 edition of the Lynx Purchasing Market Forecast is available here.