A basket of essential food items in Portugal currently costs €210.83, or €27.20 more (+14.82%) than on 23 February – the day that Russia invaded Ukraine – new data has found.
Portuguese consumers’ association Deco Proteste has been monitoring the prices of a basket of 63 essential food products for several months.
This includes items such as turkey, chicken, hake, mackerel, onions, potatoes, carrots, bananas, apples, oranges, rice, spaghetti, sugar, ham, milk, cheese and butter.
Price Increases Across The Board
In the period from 23 February to 5 October 2022, all categories of food products registered price increases.
Fish (+18.99%) and meat (+17.6%) stood out, while fruit and vegetables (+15.56%), dairy products (+11.09%), groceries (+10.43%) and frozen food (+5.33%) also saw increases.
The ten products that saw the highest price hikes during the period were fresh hake (+64%), broccoli (+48%), cabbage (+42%), whole chicken (+32%), turkey steak (+30%), tomato pulp (+28%), cookies (+27%), cake flour (+24%), sea bream (+22%) and wholegrain cereals (+21%).
Deco Proteste’s analysis shows that prices have been rising almost every week, with some products registering double-digit price increases from one week to the next.
For example, between 28 September and 5 October, the ten products with the biggest price rises were tomato pulp (+9%), courgettes (+8%), spaghetti (+7%), onions (+7%) black scabbardfish (+6%), curly-leaf lettuce (+6%), ground roasted coffee (+4%), codfish (+4%), tuna in vegetable oil (+4%) and wholegrain cereals (+3%).
Supply From Foreign Markets
According to the consumers’ association, food prices are increasing because Portugal is highly dependent on foreign markets to guarantee its supply of cereals.
In fact, cereal self-sufficiency amounts to just 19.4% in Portugal – one of the lowest in the world – meaning that the country imports around 80% of the cereals that it consumes.
Meanwhile, increases in consumer prices in areas such as fuel and food are contributing to an increase in the inflation rate.
According to Portugal’s national institute of statistics (INE), the inflation rate reached 8.9% in August of this year and was expected to grow to 9.3% in September.
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest supply chain news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
