RT.com
19 Mar 2023, 20:14 GMT+10
Buoyant demand from abroad is reportedly making the products less affordable domestically
Spaniards are facing surging prices for tomatoes and pork amid burgeoning demand for the products from abroad and geopolitical tensions, the Financial Times reported this week, citing the billionaire owner of Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona.
According to the businessman, who is ranked as Spain's fourth-richest person, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has heavily weighed on tomato prices as it resulted in sharp surge in prices for natural gas, forcing farmers to shut down production of vegetables in greenhouses in Northern Europe due to high heating costs.
As a result, buyers flocked to Spain's solar-powered growers, pushing up prices from €1.39 per kilogram in January 2021 to €2.05 today.
"The cost has gone up by a whopping 66 cents. We've raised prices by 50%," Roig said, as quoted by the newspaper.
"So we had two options: either buy tomatoes or leave customers without tomatoes. And we believed it was more important to have tomatoes at €2.05 than to not have tomatoes."
According to Roig, the price of pork, vital for making Iberian ham, has skyrocketed due to soaring demand from China, for which Spain is a major supplier.
"There are one billion Chinese people," the businessman said. "How much did they ask for? . . . I don't know. What I do know is that pork cost €1.05 [per kilogram in January 2021] and now it costs €1.96."
Earlier this week, the country's national institute of statistics (INE) reported that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food stood at 16.6% in February, marking the highest level since 1994. This is despite the IVA (Spain's sales tax) reductions adopted during the previous month.
For more stories on economy & finance visit RT's business section
(RT.com)
Get a daily dose of Cape Town Express news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Cape Town Express.
More InformationMEMPHIS, Tennessee: Tennessee authorities are slowly releasing information about a weekend car crash on a freeway that killed six young ...
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Officials from Indonesia's Aceh province said that more than 180 Rohingya Muslims landed this week by boat, in ...
HONG KONG: Hong Kong's first authorized protest took place since the end of COVID-19 restrictions and under new strict security ...
MOSCOW, Russia: A new campaign has begun across Russia to attract badly needed recruits to replenish its troop numbers for ...
WASHINGTON D.C.: US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said that lawmakers will move forward on legislation aimed at ...
CROWNPOINT, New Mexico: Navajo Technical University, located on the largest Native American reservation in the US, has become the first ...
Hamilton [New Zealand], March 30 (ANI): Sri Lanka trails New Zealand 1-0 in the three-match series with the first game ...
The Kingdom has approved ?partner? status in the Shanghai Cooperation OrganizationKing Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has signed the documents ...
New Delhi [India], March 30 (ANI): The IPL, Season 16 is all set to begin. It's a tournament where impact ...
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], March 30 (ANI): Legendary South Africa all-rounder Jacques Kallis on Thursday made an early prediction as to ...
Telangana (Hyderabad) [India], March 30 (ANI): Indian pace veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar will lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in their Indian Premier League ...
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], March 30 (ANI): Royal Challengers Bangalore is one of the most beloved teams since the inception of ...