The 2023 widespread inflation in food prices resulted in a 10% increase in the average shopping basket. Furthermore, the budget that the Spanish dedicated to food and drink, both inside and outside the home, amounted to 2,732 euros per person, 5.8% more than the previous year. The data is extracted from the food consumption report presented this Friday by the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, and which leaves the following x-ray.
He Total spending on food and drink rose to 115,917 million of euros, which represents a growth of 7.5%. A total of 30,728 million kilos and liters of food and beverages were purchased, 0.7% more than in 2023. This upward trend was evident in household consumption, where the budget increase was 10%, compared to 3 % more spending in bars and restaurants.
The total amount of drinks and food consumed per person continues to contract: in 2023, was 685 kilos/liters, a figure that represents 2% less than a year before and almost one hundred kilos less than in 2020, although it was a year with uneven behavior as a result of the pandemic. The report shows that residents in Spain spent 80,975 million euros on household food, 9.6% more in a context of 10% price increases.
In Spain, average consumption within the home was 1,730 euros per person, with significant differences between autonomous communities. Navarre leads the classification with 2,015 eurosfollowed by Basque Country (2009) and Catalonia (2001). At the opposite extreme, Extremadura (1,388), Andalusia (1,533) and Castile-La Mancha (1,565) showed the lowest averages. The shopping basket showed that fresh products represented only 37.5% of the total, but 40% of the budget.
Supermarkets maintained their leadership with 50.7% of the market share, while hypermarkets reached 12.9% and discount stores increased their share to 14.1%, to the detriment of traditional stores. Online shopping had a slight decrease, remaining at 2.2%. Regarding consumption outside the home, prices in bars and restaurants rose by 5.7%, with an increase in spending of 3.1%. Each Spaniard spent an average of 1,001.86 euros on restaurants in 2023, spending more on drinks (674 euros) than on food (327 euros), still below the 1,095 euros in 2019.
The Spanish increased the time spent cooking, using the frying pan or griddle 34% of the time. On the weekly menu, The green salad led with 8.9 times average consumptionfollowed by pizzas, tomato salads and chicken breast, the latter exceeding four times a week.
He Government of Spain will approve in the Council of Ministers next Tuesday the VAT reduction to 0% olive oil starting July 1, as confirmed by sources from the Ministry of Finance directed by María Jesús Montero. The Executive has already reduced olive oil from 10% to 5% in 2023, a measure that is now intensifying until it is reduced to the maximum. The Treasury has decided that, permanently, ‘green gold’ becomes part of the group of essential products such as bread, eggs, fruit and vegetables.
During the presentation of the food consumption report, Luis Planas, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pointed out that this drop shows a “coherent” measure given the rise in the price of the product. “We want to be consistent with our support policy to all citizens, to their consumption capacity, to families and also obviously to a product that is of first necessity and also of obvious healthas is olive oil,” the head of the branch has stated.
Along these lines, the minister has reported that there is a drop in the consumption of olive oil, given its increase in price, which is why the Government has considered that it was “necessary to go further in this extension.” “For this reason we have reached 0%. I think it is a clear example of the commitment that the Government makes for olive oil and for the olive oil sector,” the minister indicated.
