“You have to get used to the fact that the food is more expensive,” said Miguel Patricio, CEO of the Multinational Food Kraft Heinz, in an interview with the BBC.
Patricio announced that the giant of food and beverages is rising prices in several countries.
Unlike previous years, he said that now inflation is now “generalized”.
The cost of ingredients such as cereals and oils has raised global food prices to a maximum of 10 years, according to the United Nations agriculture and food organization (FAO).
Kraft Heinz has increased the prices of more than half of its products in the United States, its local market, and Patricio admitted that this is also happening elsewhere.
“We will increase the prices, when necessary, all over the world,” he said.
During the pandemic, many countries saw the production of raw materials fall, from crops to vegetable oils.
The measures to control the virus, as well as the disease, limited production and distribution.
As economies have rebooted, the offer of these products has not been able to keep up with the return on demand, which has caused prices to rise.
Higher salaries and energy prices have also been added to the loading of costs for manufacturers.
Patricio says that this wide range of factors is contributing to increase the price of food.
“In the United Kingdom, truck drivers are missing. In the United States, logistical costs also increased substantially and there is a shortage of labor in certain areas of the economy,” he says in the interview with BBC.
Patricio says consumers should get used to higher food prices given that the world population is increasing, while the amount of crop ground.
Although in the long term, “there is a lot of technology to come that will improve the effectiveness of farmers.”
But not all cost increases must be passed on to consumers, Patricio said.
Companies would have to absorb part of the increase.
“I think it depends on us, from industry and other companies trying to minimize these price increases,” he said.
Kraft Heinz is one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, which employs 38,000 people, increased its sales by 1.6% in the first half of 2021.