by The price of the basket of basic food items rose again this week – it is the third consecutive week of increase – according to the analysis of DECO Proteste: it reached a record price of 230.76 euros, marking an increase of more than 25% since the start of war in Ukraine, when the same basket of products cost about 187 euros (about 47 euros less).
In the last three weeks, DECO points to an increase of 4.16 euros in the food basket. 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 11.36 euros.
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 cereal flakes (14%), perch and sliced turkey breast (10%), oranges (9%), onions and spaghetti (7%) , virgin olive oil, sea bream, tuna in olive oil and long grain rice (all “raise” 6%).
The ten products that saw their prices increase the most since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, i.e. from February 24, 2022, were cabbage heart (123), Carolina rice (91), tomato paste and onion ( 66%). ), carrots (65%), curly lettuce and salmon (56%), white sugar (52%), cauliflower (51%) and finally extra virgin olive oil (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 34.38%, 8.12 euros) and fish (26.1%, 15.74 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.
