The war in Ukraine has fueled a steady rise in food prices, but the past three weeks have been the exception to the rule.
A Deco Protest Analysis at the values ​​practiced, reveals that the price of the basket of basic necessities costs 205.29 euros this week, a small decrease of 0.13% compared to what it cost eight days ago.
Since February 23, when Deco launched the analysis, the day before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of the same basket has already increased by 11.8% (21.66 euros).
The consumer protection association monitors the prices of a basket of 63 essential food products each week, including products such as turkey, chicken, hake, horse mackerel, onions, potatoes, carrots, bananas, apples, oranges, rice, spaghetti, sugar. ., ham, milk, cheese and butter.
This week, in the period from July 20 to July 27, the 10 products with the highest price increases were courgette (10%), fresh hake (9%), onion (8%), lettuce (7%), red potato (6%), perch (5%), sea bream (4%), sliced ​​flamande cheese (4%), beef (3%) and kale (3%).
If the analysis focuses exclusively on the categories of products whose prices increase the most, between February 23, the day before the outbreak of the armed conflict in Ukraine, and July 27, fish and meat are those that stand out the most , with increases of 16.55% and 14.75%, respectively.
“The ten products that saw their prices rise the most in the last five months were fresh hake (56%), salmon (39%), 100% vegetable cooking oil (35%), whole chicken (30 %), flour for cakes. (28%), Maria wafer (27%), turkey steak (22%), red potato (21%), sea bream (20%) and sliced ​​Flemish cheese (18%)”, emphasizes.
The association explains that this increase is due to the fact that Portugal is “highly dependent on external markets to guarantee the supply of cereals necessary for internal consumption”, which “currently only represent 3.5% of national agricultural production. : mainly maize (56%)”. , wheat (19%) and rice (16%).
“And if at the beginning of the 1990s self-sufficiency in cereals was around 50%, currently the value does not exceed 19.4%, one of the lowest percentages in the world and which forces the country to import around 80% of the cereals he consumes. adds Deco.
The organization specifies that “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where most of the cereals consumed in the European Union come from, and in Portugal, has therefore put even more pressure on a sector that has been struggling for months with the consequences of a pandemic and a drought with a strong impact on production and stockpiling”.
“The limitation of the supply of raw materials and the increase in production costs, in particular energy, necessary for agro-food production, can therefore result in an increase in prices on international markets and, consequently , consumer prices,” he points out.
In addition, he points out, “consecutive increases in consumer prices, especially of products such as fuel and food, contribute to an increase in the rate of inflation”.
“According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the inflation rate accelerated to 8.7% in June this year. Expressed as a percentage, inflation reflects the average rise in the price level over a given period,” he concludes.