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Cheese sandwiches and pizzas may no longer be a cheap snack, reports Jamie Doward.
A combination of freakish weather and runaway global demand for milk is sending the price of cheese soaring.
Experts say a massive increase in demand for milk from fast-growing countries such as India and China is playing havoc with the normal laws of supply and demand.
A severe drought in Australia – one of the world’s biggest milk producers – and an EU policy to reduce milk production among member states have both restricted supply.
For the owners of Italian restaurants, the massive price increases could not have come at a worse time. Wheat prices are also soaring, sending the cost of pasta spiralling.
So far global restaurant chains – such as Pizza Hut – have tried to resist passing the increase on to their customers.
But in the US, where 350 slices of pizza are consumed every second and the wholesale price of cheddar cheese, the industry benchmark, has almost doubled in the past year, the omens are not good.
David Zaslavsky, a market analyst with Downes-O’Neill, a dairy brokerage firm in Chicago, said that a strong demand, along with a typical summer decline in milk production, could keep cheese prices high.
