Make the shopping cart, more and more expensive.
The invasion of Russia is already making a good part of the products and foods made with cereals or sunflower oil more expensive, but they are not the only ones that make the shopping basket more expensive
The rise in prices of all kinds of products worries the consumer a lot, since he notices it when buying products as basic as daily food. The price of sunflower oil and wheat, above all, is already having a cascading influence on a multitude of daily consumption products that the citizen’s pocket feels too much.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, one of the main exporting countries of wheat, corn, flour and sunflower oil, added to the rise in energy prices, led by gas, electricity and oil, has a direct impact on countless sectors. The breakdown of trade with Russia and the blockade of Ukraine, known as the granary of Europe, especially affects food companies, which have seen raw materials become more expensive and how some of them are even becoming scarce.
This situation also affects a basic material whose price increase affects livestock: feed. Thus, any derivative product is at risk of continuing to rise as well, including from sausages to eggs. Spain is a net importer of cereals used as animal feed in pig and poultry farms.
Food whose price is going up
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Sunflower oil:
It affects all kinds of processed foods, as well as snacks such as chips, as well as preserves or mayonnaise, for example. -
Wheat:
its price affects all types of food, especially flour, bakery, pastries, pastries, pasta, beer and other alcoholic beverages -
Feed:
affects beef, pork and poultry, as well as sausages, eggs and milk -
Other foods:
fresh fruit, dried or preserved vegetables, baby food, frozen fish, cheese, sauces and condiments, mineral water,…
Much of the grain we consume came from the Ukraine, and if the price of cereals and fertilizers rises, this also impacts the price of numerous foods, such as all those related to the meat sector (including sausages) and to cereals, such as beer (made with barley) or bakery products, which use all kinds of flour to make their products.
With the CPI soaring and the rationing of sunflower oil in some establishments, the OCU shows its concern about the increase in the price of other essential products, which at the beginning of the year have seen their price increase. Legumes, fruit or milk, are on this list that worries the consumer organization.
The OCU expresses its concern that this rise in food prices in February has been very worrying in several basic products, such as fresh fruit (3.8%), dried or canned vegetables (3.1%) and, above all, baby food (5.0%). Also striking, according to the consumer organization, are the “extraordinary increases” in sauces and condiments (5.2%), mineral water (5.1%) and prepared dishes (4.5%).
But there are many more. If the price of animal manure rises, the cost of producing eggs or milk may also rise, although this rise may also extend to the manufacture of foods whose main raw material is oil, such as preserves (they use oil massive sunflower), appetizers, or mayonnaise.
FAO Index
Thus, according to the Food Price Index of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), this is the variation that basic foods have suffered in the last 16 years. As you can see, the increase in dairy products, cereals and vegetable oils in the last year is spectacular.
The FAO food price index shows records in February for dairy products, cereals and oils. /
The FAO Food Price Index is a measure of the monthly change in international prices for a basket of food products. It consists of the average of the price indices of five commodity groups weighted according to the average export shares of each of the groups during the period 2014-16. The February index stood at an average of 140.7 points, that is, 5.3 points (3.9%) more than in January and 24.1 points (20.7%) above its level of a year ago. This represents a new all-time high, which exceeds the previous high from February 2011 by 3.1 points.
The index of vegetable oils, for example, has experienced a rise of 33% in just one year, going from 147 to 201. Within the food industry, the production of flour, bakery, pastries and cakes, pasta will be hit especially and the manufacture of malt, beer and spirits. The war crisis will also harm the production of compound feed, with the implications that this may have on the entire livestock and meat sector, as concluded in another analysis by Informa’s DBK Sectorial Observatory.
Another derivative that is already having an impact is the price of fuel, which has been above two euros per liter for the first time. Several gas stations in Gipuzkoa have already been selling 98-octane gasoline above that cost for a few days, even Diesel + has also already exceeded the round figure of a couple of euros, which means that filling the tank with 50 liters implies spending more than 100 euros. Within the raw materials, fuels are the fastest experiencing a price increase. This is due to the rocket effect, which immediately reflects the increase in raw materials in life. While when the opposite happens, the drop in price is much slower, which is known as the pen effect.