Price rises continue as food inflations hit peak

By Alex Trelinski

started using the current measuring system in 1994. The peak in the current economic crisis was 15.7% in December with this year’s IVA tax cuts on basic food essentials being quickly swallowed up by rising prices. Increased fresh food costs for vegetables, fruits, and legumes are behind the rise due to supply issues caused by weather conditions in Spain and in other EU countries, and the resulting increase in international demand.

MERCADONA has reported that profits rose 5% last year as consumers had to deal with increased prices.

The company made €718 million in 2022 - up from €680 million the previous year. Mercadona president and main shareholder, Juan Roig, said that €161 million in dividends had been paid out and in ‘the interests of transparency’, he declared his annual salary as €11 million. On rising food prices, Juan Roig said his business had cut profit margins by 0.6% to help customers.

Last month, Agriculture Minister Luis Planas said there were ‘reasons to believe that food inflation had peaked’, but clearly that is not the case, with added pressure now on the government to do more. Among some of the biggest rises over 12 months, there’s sugar (52.6%), butter (39.1%), sauces and condiments (33.8%), olive oil (33.5%) and whole milk (33.2%).