by The price of the basket of basic food items rose again this week – it is the fourth consecutive week of increase –, according to analysis by DECO Proteste: it reached a record price of almost 235 euros (234.84), an increase of more than 27% from the beginning of the war in Ukraine, when the same basket of products cost around 187 euros (about 51 euros less).
This number represents a new high since DECO PROTESTE began tracking the basket of 63 food staples. Only in the last week the increase was another 4 euros for the basket with the same products. From the beginning of 2023 and despite the fact that inflation has slowed down, there has already been an increase in the cost of the basket by €15.44.
The Consumer Protection Association tracks the prices of a basket of 63 food staples each week, which includes items such as turkey, chicken, hake, mackerel, onion, potato, carrot, banana, apple, orange, rice, spaghetti, sugar, ham, milk, cheese and butter.
In the last week, the ten products with the biggest price increases were cod (15%), roasted ground coffee (14%), spiral pasta (12%), turkey leg (10), crustless sliced bread (8%). ), 100% vegetable cooking oil (8%), fresh hake (8%), onion (7%), extra virgin olive oil (7%) and extra leg ham (6%).
The ten products that saw their prices increase the most since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, that is, from February 24, 2022, were cabbage hearts (123%), Carolina rice (85%), onions (78%), the tomato. pulp (75%), carrots (67%), salmon (63%), extra virgin olive oil (59%), white sugar (52%), curly lettuce (51%) and cauliflower (49%).
The biggest increase in prices, from the beginning of the war in Ukraine until now, was noted in the categories of fruit and vegetables (increase of 32.33%, 7.63 euros) and fish (29.66%, 17.89 euros).
The association explains that this increase is due to the fact that Portugal is “largely dependent on external markets to guarantee the supply of grains necessary for internal consumption”, which “currently represent only 3.5 % of national agricultural production: mainly corn (56%), wheat (19%) and rice (16%).
“And if in the early 1990s self-sufficiency in cereals was around 50%, today, the value does not exceed 19.4%, one of the lowest rates in the world and which forces the country to import about 80% of cereals. Deco adds.
The agency clarifies that “Russia’s incursion into Ukraine, from which much of the grain consumed in the European Union and Portugal comes, is therefore putting even more pressure on a sector struggling with the consequences of a pandemic and drought with strong impact on production and stockpiling’.
“The limitation of the supply of raw materials and the increase in the cost of production, i.e. the energy, necessary for the production of agri-food, can therefore be reflected in an increase in prices in international markets and, consequently, in prices to the consumer.” underlines.
