Boris Johnson has warned the food shortage crisis could continue for months.
The food sector has been hit with issues as the world emerges from the pandemic due to a lack of HGV drivers and soaring gas demand - as Mirror Online reports.
The Prime Minister claimed the problems were temporary, but admitted the food sector was still struggling, which raises fears over the shortages in the run up to Christmas.
READ MORE: Universal Credit cut is an 'act of war' on low paid workers
He said: "We’re experiencing bottlenecks in all kinds of things as the world wakes up from Covid.
"It’s like everybody going back to put the kettle on at the end of a TV programme, you’re seeing huge stresses on the world supply systems.
"But you’re also seeing businesses bouncing back strongly.
"It is fundamentally caused by the global economy coming to life again.
He continued: "The guy ropes are pinging off Gulliver and it’s standing up, and it’s going to take a while, as it were, for the circulation to adjust.”
Asked whether that could take months by reporters on his plane, he replied: “It could be faster than that, it could be much faster than that.
"But there are problems as you know with shipping, with containers, with staff, there are all sorts of problems.
"But then these are problems that affect the entire world. I think market forces will be very very swift in sorting it out."
Government ministers have been at pains to distance the supply chain problems from new post-Brexit checks imposed at the border with the European Union.
Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has been locked in urgent meetings with energy company bosses in the wake of surging gas prices.
But Mr Johnson said: "As the world economy starts firing on cylinders — to use a hydrocarbon metaphor — things will start to smooth out.
"I have no doubt that supply issues will be readily addressed. We’re very confident in our supply chains.
"But in the meantime, we will make sure we work with all the gas companies to do whatever we can to keep people’s supplies coming, to make sure they don’t go out for business, and to make sure we get through the current difficult period."
Want to find out the latest news in your area? Enter your postcode on our In Your Area page here
