Our breakfast platter looks set to become more expensive. Drought, disease and rising demand have led to prices of eight key breakfast commodities rising on average almost 25 per cent this year, fuelling consumer fears of food inflation.

“Everything we have for breakfast is up,” said Abdolreza Abbassian at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation of the increases of coffee, orange juice, wheat, sugar, milk, butter, cocoa and pork. “This has all happened unexpectedly but shows how quickly things can change.”

Coffee has soared more than 70 per cent because of unseasonably dry weather in Brazil, while US pigs have been hit by a virus epidemic, leading to a more than 40 per cent rally in Chicago pork prices.

Wheat prices have been hit by political uncertainties. After edging higher because of the extreme cold winter in the US, they have been pushed further by the crisis in Ukraine, a key grain producer.

Dairy prices have been bolstered by high demand in emerging markets such as China and Russia where rising incomes have driven increased consumption of milk, butter and milk powder for infants.

Read the full article in The Financial Times here.