Sunflower oil sales have surged 27% since April on fears of shortages following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is the world’s largest producer (46%).
Headlines about scarcity have encouraged shoppers to stock up on frying oil in a similar frenzy to pre-pandemic foods stockpiling.
Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight, said: “The war in Ukraine has increased public awareness of supply pressures and there was evidence of some stocking up as consumers prepared for limited availability along with higher prices.”
Supermarkets, therefore, introduced restrictions to shoppers over the weekend on the number of cooking oil products that could be bought in a single shop.
At the weekend, Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) (Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO)), Waitrose and Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC were allowing customers only to purchase two or three bottles, while Iceland allowed one bottle each.
Meanwhile, vegetable oil sales soared “even faster,” according to Kantar, up by 40% in April – contributing largely to this month’s expanded oil market.
“The combination of rising prices and increased demand saw the cooking oil market grow by 17% over April,” McKevitt added.