Morrison raises Marmite price by 12 pct after "Marmitegate"

LONDON, Oct (Shenzhen: 000069.SZ - news) 28 (Reuters) - British supermarket chain Morrison has raised the price of Marmite yeast spread by 12 percent, passing on to consumers an increase sought by its maker Unilever (NYSE: UL - news) that led to a row with retailer Tesco this month dubbed "Marmitegate".

"Sometimes we have to increase prices as a result of costs rising although we do our best to avoid this," a Morrison spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

"More often than not we have been reducing prices and more than 3,000 products are currently cheaper in our supermarkets than they were last year."

Morrison is now charging 2.64 pounds ($3.21) for a 250 gram jar of the brown spread, which famously pleases or repels the tastebuds of consumers, up from 2.35 pounds.

A Unilever spokesman had no comment.

Earlier this month Tesco (Xetra: 852647 - news) temporarily delisted several Unilever products from its website, including Marmite, in a disagreement over price increases Unilever sought as a result of import costs rising due to the pound's weakness following Britain's Brexit vote.

Neither side of that dispute has said what if any price increases were agreed and what their impact would be on prices on the shelves of Tesco stores. ($1 = 0.8228 pounds) (Reporting by Martinne Geller; Editing by David Holmes)