Supermarkets assure that they contain prices: "We pay farmers 24.8% more, but we raise the consumer 18.8%"

Food prices enter the political debate even within the Government and constitute a key indicator in the evolution of the Spanish economy.

What's going on?

Spanish supermarket chains say they are containing prices, even though they are paying ranchers and farmers more for their products.

«We pay 26.8% more for food products to farmers and we have only raised them to the consumer by 18.8%.

They are official data », assures this newspaper the general director of the Spanish Association of Distributors, Self-services and Supermarkets (Asedas), I

.

This association brings together major supermarket chains in the country, including DIA, Mercadona, Spar or Save More, among others and, according to its director, "this containment can be seen by crossing official data from the Ministry of Agriculture, the IPRI index of the food industry and the CPI of the sector in the National Institute of Statistics».

, according to the head of this association of supermarkets.

García Magarzo declines to respond directly to the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz, but lists for this newspaper examples of the behavior of commodity prices that show the effort, in his opinion, of the sector.

“For class M eggs we are paying 1.01 euros per kilo at origin according to the latest data for August, while in the same month a year ago, we did not exceed 0.61.

».

He gives three more examples: "For veal we pay 32.1% more, but the increase in the store is 23.4%".

«For the green pepper, 45.5% which translates to the consumer in 12.2%».

"As for the tomato, it enters at 38.4% above, but in the store, the rise is 19.1%".

Especially sensitive is the price of milk

.

According to the latest report on the beef sector from the Ministry of Agriculture, "the average price for the period January-June 2022 is 23.8% higher than the average price for the same period of the last 5 years."

However, according to supermarkets, in the first half of the year it has risen in their establishments by around 14%.

The farmers demand that the chains pay them more for their milk, but it is striking that Enba, the association of Basque farmers, published a tweet on its official account against Díaz's plan: "Mrs. Minister, before capping the price of food you should start by capping the price of our production inputs.”

The head of a regional supermarket chain affirms, under anonymity, that it is wrong to consider that the chains are taking advantage of the current crisis to increase profits.

"

. "

Now that they are high, what we are trying to do is reduce margins so as not to shoot up prices that would discourage consumption.

Volume and efficiency means we don't have to raise consumer prices as much as they do for us."

The expected evolution continues to be upwards.

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