Making a potato omelette, a typical dish of our gastronomy, comes out 9% more expensive than nine months ago, since the ingredients we use to cook it (potatoes, eggs and onions) have risen up to 20% in the case of the potatoes. This increase, however, has not made us stop doing it.
This concrete example illustrates well what is happening in what we have been doing for a year in the consumer sector, which groups the products we buy in supermarkets, hypermarkets and specialist food stores.
The market is almost flat, in fact we buy fewer products, with a 0.6% drop in volume, but spending increases 1% for two reasons: because we buy more expensive or premium products and because prices have risen, above all of the most basic and fresh products.
"There is a clear increase in consumption and expenditure on fresh products and this is what is being the engine of large consumption and what is allowing positive numbers," says Florencio García, distribution director of the consulting firm Kantar Worldpanel, which He has presented his latest study on trends in distribution and large consumption in what we have of 2019.
Fresh inflation
As the expert explains, there is "clearly a price effect, we consume the same but we spend more." "The inflation of the products is what contributes this greater expense".
We leave 1.9% more money in fresh products (fruits, vegetables, meat, fish), but if we take into account the supermarket and hypermarket chains and exclude the specialized stores of a lifetime (butcher shop, fruit shop ... .) We see that the expenditure is even greater, with a 4.1% rise over a year ago.
As García explains, the consumer is increasingly betting on these chains, precisely because of the great commitment they have made for fresh products, which we traditionally bought in specialized stores. These (butcher, fruit shop, fish shop) still have a 23% share.
Packaged food does fall. We spend the same but we buy 1.1% less. Even so, within this category "yes there are products associated with health and convenience that grow", as is the case of nuts, with an increase of 35% of expenditure, or of prepared dishes, which grow in expenditure 28%
This responds to "two booming consumption trends: concern for health and convenience or comfort," says Garcia.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- economy
Results Visitors from Asia and America account for 27% of total tourism spending
Politics The Diputación de Barcelona draws the debt for energy poverty from the Government
According to the World Economic Forum, why is Spain the most competitive tourist destination in the world?