2023-12-24 13:53:59
The arrival of Christmas is always accompanied by traditional and, in many cases, copious lunches and dinners in which there is an abundance of products not so consumed at other times of the year such as seafood as well as certain meats and fish. And since where demand goes up, the price goes up, it is also a tradition that this type of food becomes more expensive around this time of year.
This year, in an economic environment that is also markedly inflationary, the average increase in the prices of these foods is around 10% compared to what they had in November, according to the OCU Observatory of Christmas food prices. As in previous years, the organization highlights that the largest increases are focused on seafood and fish and are more moderate in meats, while fruits and vegetables are the only ones that decrease or moderate their price.
Since 2015, the Organization of Consumers and Users has been following the evolution of the prices of a series of typically Christmas foods that are in high demand at this time. It does so in municipal markets, supermarkets and hypermarkets in Albacete, Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Málaga, Murcia, Seville, Valencia, Valladolid and Zaragoza. The organization collects the price of 16 products, the suckling lamb to be roasted in quarters, the veal round, the pularda, the turkey, the cut Iberian bait ham, the red cabbage, the pineapple, the pomegranate, the sea bream, the sea bass aquaculture, cut hake, eels, cooked prawns, Galician barnacles, clams and oysters.
Strong climbs
According to the results of the third wave of the study, twelve of these products have increased their price in December compared to last month compared to only four that have lowered it. Barnacles are the product that has increased the most. They have done so at a dizzying rate, 68.8%, followed by clams (36.9%), hake (29.7%) and oysters (11.6%).
With more moderate increases, below 10%, there have been sea bream (8.6%) and sea bass (7.6%), followed by meat, where lamb has experienced the greatest increase this year (6. 8%) followed by pularda (4%), beef round (1.7%), Iberian bait ham (1.3%), turkey (1.0%) and pomegranate, which has practically maintained its price compared to November (0.3%).
On the other side of the scale, only four products in the Christmas basket have lowered their price compared to last month, starting with elvers (-1.7%), although it is an insignificant decrease due to its very high price, according to they clarify from the OCU. The elvers have been followed by prawns (-4.5%) and fruits and vegetables, pineapple (-5.5%) and, finally, red cabbage (-6.1%), which is the product that most It has lowered its price in December.
The rise is more pronounced than before the December long weekend
This organization highlights in its observatory that the rise in recent days, with a price increase of 4.9%, has been somewhat more pronounced than what occurred before the December long weekend. Again, he explains, “the pattern of other years has been repeated, with strong increases concentrated in seafood and fish and more moderate variations in meats, fruits and vegetables.”
The OCU also highlights that, compared to the price levels recorded last year, prices have risen by 1.2%. This is, he adds, a more moderate increase than that suffered in previous years. However, this consumer organization reports that consumers are once again facing one of the most expensive Christmases since 2015, where six of the sixteen products in the basket (beef round, lamb, pularda, turkey, pomegranate and clams) ) are at historic highs. In fact, the Christmas basket is now 47% more expensive than in 2015. In these 9 years, the biggest increases are those of clams (+159%) and sea bream (110%). Since then, only prawns have fallen (-2%), and ham has maintained a more or less stable price (+3%).
With this data, OCU reiterates its recommendations for those consumers who want to avoid the typical Christmas and New Year’s Eve increases. “It is advisable to advance purchases (especially seafood and fish) or replace the most expensive products with other cheaper alternatives, which, although they are less in demand, can be just as interesting from a nutritional point of view,” the organization states. .
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