The chief executive at Morrisons has explained why the price for eggs and pork has risen so much.

The Bradford-based supermarket giant was among a number of supermarkets quizzed by MPs on food inflation and the cost of living crisis.

David Potts, chief executive of Morrisons, said 420 million birds have been lost to avian flu. 

He told the Business and Trade Committee: “The meat itself and particularly the eggs were in short supply.

“Producers are starting to rebuild the flocks and are coming back across all the UK. I am hopeful that we will see a gradual normalising of the egg price.”

He said an almost over-supply of pigs led to a reduction in the rearing of pigs at a time when demand was going up.

“That has put a relatively cheap meat under pricing pressure,” he said.

Mr Potts was also pressed on fuel prices amid the then-chancellor Rishi Sunak’s 5p fuel duty cut in March 2022.

He added: “I think we can always do more. The energy costs that exist, the transport costs, the labour costs within our sites, they all have added to the oil barrel post-Russia.

“Prices on our supermarket forecourts are lower than the independents and continue to be so.”