Just two years ago, on March 9, 2020, the stockpiling phenomenon began in Spanish supermarkets, when the closure of schools was announced and fears of shortages arose.

The consumer devastated cans, preserves, cleaning products and, above all, toilet paper.

Two years and a pandemic later,

some scenes of psychosis have been relived, but in this case with sunflower oil.

Some supermarket chains

restricted the purchase of this product last Friday "due to the abnormal behavior of some consumers"

, who were overstocking, fearing that there would be no because of the war in Ukraine.

Spain buys 60% of the sunflower from this country, as well as 30% of the cereal, which is used for animal feed, among other things.

Both the distribution and the producers themselves believe that this psychosis is "unjustified, even despite the closure of trade with these countries" and that "the paper phenomenon of 2020" will not be repeated.

"Much has been said about Ukraine being Spain's breadbasket, but not the only one. There are other markets for grain, such as the US or Argentina, or Brazil, for sunflowers," says José Manuel Roche, from the Union of Small Farmers (UPA), who explains that the EU is working so that in the coming weeks ships can leave from there for Europe.

"These days there is atypical behavior on the part of the consumer in some products, which has forced the purchase of units to be limited.

This makes no sense in a country, like ours, with a solid chain,

as it was shown at the beginning of the pandemic," says Ignacio García-Magarzo, president of Asedas, the Spanish Association of Distributors, Self-Services and Supermarkets, who already warned on Friday that some chains were rationing the purchase of this product due to excessive stocking.

Carlos Coto, an expert at Kantar, believes that "

the situation in March 2020 was much more generalized and affected the entire distribution,

in a more transversal way, while the impact now will only be for some manufacturers or a specific product."

"There will be no shortages, what is most worrying is the rise in prices, which may occur in the affected categories."

Collection by prices

"In 2020, what there was was fear of not being able to leave the house, and then, of getting infected, but now the situation is completely different," explains a source from the distribution sector, who explains that

this collection originated "because in the hospitality industry This oil is used a lot

for frying, and stocks began to be made for fear of prices going up," first in wholesale spaces, and then in chain stores, which "transferred this pressure to the normal customer."

"The distribution and suppliers

are already working so that the situation affects as little as possible

by looking for alternative products. We must remember that Spain is a world producer of olive oil, so the Spanish consumer will be the least affected in this regard," he points out from Sedas.

The Ministry of Agriculture

is negotiating to open imports to other markets such as Argentina, Brazil or the US,

which were now limited by a residue issue due to the use of phytosanitary products or because they are genetically modified crops.

"Until now, the EU has not prioritized production, but how, but part of this roadmap will have to be postponed until the conflict is resolved."

That in the coming weeks "four or five ships depart from Argentina would remove a lot of tension from the supply chain,"

says the UPA expert, who acknowledges that there is a lot of feed stored "and some intermediaries who are speculating."

He calculates that "we can have feed in stock for about three months."

A ship from Argentina takes about 30 days to reach Spanish ports.

"That there is fear of a shortage of sunflower oil when Spain is the world's leading producer of olive oil is absurd. The Spanish consumer will be the least affected. Spain can double the production of products that are imported today because it was cheaper. ", points out one of these sources, who recalls that "Spain is not the United Kingdom, which buys everything".

"If each consumer takes 10 liters of sunflower oil, we will stop having it on store shelves and we will have it stored at home, further aggravating prices."

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