Rising prices have changed our consumption habits, especially when buying food products
The Shopping basket It has witnessed a price hike that is difficult to contain for months. Regardless of the fact that inflation Accumulating a third month of decline, still positive: October closed at 7.3%, mainly driven by cost of food products. An increase that makes daily life exponentially more expensive, because the foods whose value increases the most are usually essential (vegetables, eggs, milk …). The local economy is suffering and the extra cost is notable: Spanish households will spend about €830 extra on food at the end of the year, the OCU warns.
If inflation grew initially, mainly driven by the rise in Energy and fuel pricesNow the rise has stabilized and food products are taking control. According to the data of the National Institute of Statistics, food increased by 13.3% in October compared to September and recorded an annual rise of 15.4%, which is the record since the beginning of this historical series in January 1994. The annual increases are noted by foods such as sugar (42.8%), legumes vegetables (25.7%), eggs (25.5%), milk (25%), oil (23.9%), grains and derivatives (22.1%), potatoes (19.9%), chicken (18.3%), bread (14.9%) or beef (14.9%).
Faced with this skyrocketing cost, citizens are taking action: They reduce the total weight of their shopping cart, especially fresh produce. Fact verified in the Food Consumption Panel I published Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. The latest report, which includes data from August, shows that Spanish households bought a 8.8% less of food products compared to the same period of the previous year, with fish (-14.7%) and fresh vegetables (-13.9%) recording the largest decrease.
Frozen products also decreased directly, but to a lesser extent, while products that have already been processed are the most affected. With a situation that does not look like it will be reversed in the coming months, an idea Freeze or buy food already processed It doesn’t seem farfetched.
Frozen meat and fish for Christmas?
The change in buying habits has become widespread in Spain. As indicated by a report from the Association of Manufacturers and Distributors AECOC77% of consumers have already reported their habits when buying food products and 57% said they are buy less.
Other differences when purchasing these staple foods are Prioritizing bulk purchases, a decision already made by a third of those surveyed. Only two out of ten fruit and vegetable buyers keep their shopping cart.
With Christmas approaching and with no prospect of prices continuing to rise, what will the Spaniards do to celebrate the holidays? The same survey also suggests that we will change our habits: we will advance meat or fish purchases to avoid last-minute price increases and take advantage of potential earlier offers. Thus, it will be almost mandatory to freeze food if we want it to arrive in good condition or even to buy it already frozen in a good way. Let’s do hole in the freezer for what is coming our way.
Related news
