Prices of more than 10,000 food and beverage items will increase this year; This number is down from more than 30,000 last year

A private research firm has found that the number of food and beverage products that have had or will have their prices increased this year is expected to exceed 10,000 units, a significant drop from last year, when the number was more than 30,000 units.

As the yen weakens in the foreign exchange market, there are concerns that the cost of purchasing raw materials and ingredients from abroad will rise, and Teikoku Databank, Ltd. believes that “there will be a wave of large-scale price increases from now on. the autumn.”

The research agency collected price trends from 195 major domestic food and beverage producers. The number of items whose prices have increased or will increase in the period January-November totaled 10,086.

This number is less than a third of the number of items whose prices rose throughout 2023, which totaled 32,396. Regarding the main drivers of price increases, “commodity price increases” accounted for more than 90%, the same as last year, while “the weak yen” accounted for 29.8%, up from 11.4% in 2023 .

In July, 411 food and drink items will become more expensive.

Mercian Corp. plans to raise prices on about 130 wine products, with imported wines increasing by 5% to 50% and Japanese wines by 10%. Yamazaki Baking Co. will raise prices on some of its products, including raisins and chocolate. In addition to the weak yen, these companies have also been hit by higher commodity prices due to poor harvests caused by adverse weather conditions.