Tesco, Asda, M&S shoppers warned price of salad staple is set to 'skyrocket'

Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Lidl shoppers have been issued a warning over potential price hikes. High street chains such as Boots, Next and and a string of leading supermarkets have warned the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, the Labour Party MP, her Budget could cost retailers £7billion.

79 signatories say they are unlikely to be able to absorb hikes to National Insurance and the living wage — triggering job losses and price rises. And a second warning has been issued by Tom Amery, managing director at The Watercress Company, which produces 70 per cent of watercress grown in the UK.

Mr Amery warned: "If we start selling of any of our farms, the reality is that we wouldn't be able to keep up with the supply. That would then definitely lead to shortages and intermittence in supply. It could actually affect some of the contracts we have. We have contracts with M&S, Tesco, Asda - we've supplied Waitrose in the past, we could be supplying Waitrose in a couple of years' time.

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"All of those retailers need this consistent production process. If you don't supply these contracts consistently and you're not producing the crop every day of the year, that's when they get wobbly and they can withdraw products off the shelves."

"There will be quite an uptick in food inflation. Some farms are going to start shutting down, therefore the volumes decrease, therefore nationally the price will go up," he said. "This is going to unravel itself over the next two to three years. We'll start to see considerably more intermittency of supply and also increased costs on the shelves."

He said this "uncertainty" is particularly frustrating for his business as they are currently looking to up their investment in the UK by buying more farms. He added: "If we start selling off farms, the kind of person that's going to buying those farms are high wealth."