SuperValu the latest retailer to cut price of bread

The announcement is the latest move in price reductions across a number of supermarkets in the last two weeks. Picture: Peter Byrne/PA Wire

SuperValu has become the latest retailer to cut the price of bread by 10c — a swift follow on from Tesco and Aldi. 

On Thursday, the retail chain said they would be cutting the price of its 800g Daily Basics own-brand bread from €0.99c to €0.89c for a white pan and €1.09 to €0.99c for a brown pan. The company said the reduction will come into effect from today. 

This follows Tesco's and Aldi's announcement on Wednesday that they would be cutting down the price of their own-brand bread by 10c to help alleviate the pressure of the cost of living crisis. 

It is the latest move in price reductions across a number of supermarkets in the last two weeks. 

40c has been cut from the price of a 464g block of butter and 10c from the price of 2-litres of milk. 

The price reduction is good news for consumers with bread, milk, and butter staple products in most households. However, the national average price of milk had risen from €1.83 to €2.28 since the Russian invasion of Ukraine — a rise of 24%.

The drop in prices announced on Friday for milk brings a 2-litre down to €2.19 — this is significantly up on the average price a year ago.

It comes as Labour said supermarket chains should be compelled to publish their profits to prove that they are not engaging in profiteering and price gouging.

Ged Nash, the party's spokesperson on Finance, Public Expenditure & Reform said supermarkets "tend to conceal their profits like the Third Secret of Fatima. They won’t reveal them".

It would be far better for hard-pressed consumers if there was “proper engagement” with the supermarkets by the new food price regulator, he said. “We need to understand all of the costs across the supply chain.

“What’s missing here is actually what the consumers are being charged on supermarket profits and they need to be compelled to publish those profits. They need additional primary legislation and regulation to do that. I think that's the missing piece here".

Mr Nash said research had shown that food price inflation was well ahead of regular levels of inflation.

He told RTÉ's Morning Ireland that the way in which the supermarkets brought down prices at the same time recently should be a matter of interest to the Competition Consumer Protection Commission.

Mr Nash described price reductions in advance of the meeting between supermarket representatives and the Government as “a PR exercise”.

“It was a PR exercise, merely spin, to take the heat off of them and to throw a small bone indeed to the Minister and Government because the Government are really flailing on this”.