Can you guess how much cheese has gone up in price?

Inflation may finally be falling, but food price increases remain stubbornly high, with common commodities like cheese rising sharply since last year.

According to the latest information from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), inflation was 8.7% in April, compared to 10.1% in March.

This was welcomed by the government, and Rishi Sunak made halving price increases one of his five promises in his first year in office, but food inflation was 19.3%, just down from 19.6%.

After the figures were released on Wednesday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt admitted food prices were “still rising too fast”.

One of the basic goods whose price has risen the most is cheese.

Can you guess how much cheese went up?

Try your luck with our interactive table below.

The ONS figures above use the Retail Price Index (RPI) to measure cheese price increases, rather than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which the government uses to calculate the headline inflation figure.

The RPI usually gives a slightly higher headline inflation figure than the CPI, currently at 11.4% compared to 8.7% for the CPI.

The chart above shows that a kilogram of cheese cost 940p in April 2023, compared to 640p a year ago.

The price of cheese had fallen in recent years, hitting a low of 620p in February 2020.

Its previous high was 804p in November 2013, this was surpassed in December 2022 when the price was 823p.

Overall, the price of cheese increased by 42% between April 2022 and April 2023.

Why is the price of cheese rising?

All dairy products have been hit hard by the cost of living crisis, with milk up 39% over the past year.

Much of the cheese sold in the UK is made in the UK and UK dairy farmers have been hit by a spate of price hikes in recent years.

The ongoing bovine tuberculosis pandemic has forced many dairy farmers to slaughter many of their cows and put restrictions on when they can buy more cows.

The war in Ukraine has also caused the price of oils, which are often used in cheese and butter, to rise sharply.

Cow feed prices were also affected by the war in Ukraine.

In addition, the milk market is also affected by all other costs affecting the business as energy, packaging and transport prices soar.