The ginger trade has been plunged into crisis ahead of its busy festive season, with some forecasting cost increases of up to 400 per cent over the next 18 months.

Sainsbury’s has reflected this, with prices hitting £4.78/kg, and there is likely to be retail inflation across all the major multiples.

Morrisons prices its ginger at £2.49/kg, while Asda and Tesco have been under pressure, pricing their loose product at £2.15/kg and £2.25/kg respectively.

Prices has doubled over the last four months after China, which supplies around 30 per cent of the world’s crop, saw its growers turn to commodity crops such as wheat in search of better prices.

Despite product also being available from Thailand, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and the Philippines, world prices are benched from the price of Chinese ginger.

An unusually dry summer in China this year, which some fear could be linked to global warming, has affected the yields, as the vast majority of farmers do not have irrigation.

Tesco buyer Harry Jones, which sells £3 million of ginger from suppliers Maritime each year, told freshinfo: “There is zero carry-over stock from last year's harvest, which has further reduced availability. Usually the Chinese have three to four months of ginger to use up before the new-season ginger is used.

“World prices have been driven up due to the crisis in China. It is likely that ginger suppliers and importers will look to develop new sources, and countries such as India and Thailand will become more important. However, ginger is harvested once a year, and as we are at the start of the cycle, it will take one to two years before the issue is resolved.

“Many ginger growers have been selling their seed ginger as they can get such good prices at the moment. The result is that China is likely to have an under-supply for the 2011-12 season too, as there will not be enough seed crop to plant. This will keep prices high.”

There has also been pressure on the ginger market through increased demand from swine flu sufferers due to its medicinal properties.

Pressure will also be felt outside the fresh market, where the product is key in sauces, biscuits and tea, among others.

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