The escalation of prices experienced for more than a year now has given rise to crisis consumption, as in the 80s. Households have reduced the amount of food they buy but have to pay more for it. This is clear from the Report on Food Consumption in Spain 2022, published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food this week.
The study indicates that consumption during the year 2022 was lower than usual before the pandemic. If the purchase of food for consumption at home in this last year is compared with 2019, a reduction of 5.9% in volume is observed. On the other hand, the expense made was higher, with an increase of 6.3% compared to 2019, a consequence of paying 12.9% more per kilo or liter of food product. The analysis compares these two exercises as they are more similar, since 2021 was still marked by the restrictions and changes in habits derived from the covid.
In total, Spaniards spent 73,893.40 million euros in the shopping basket last year, which represents a slight decrease of -0.9 percentage points compared to the previous year. This is equivalent to an average expense per person of around 1,597.58 euros, 12.72 euros less compared to the year 2021.
The drop in food spending is due to a decrease of -8.8% in the total volume of food and beverages purchased compared to a year earlier, which closed 2022 at 26,987.66 million kilos or liters, notes the report. "The turnover in food and beverages is reduced to a lesser extent than the volume because the average price increases by 8.7% and stands at €2.74/kilo or liter," he stresses.
On average, each individual ingests approximately 583.48 kilos or liters within the home, which means that around 55.66 kilos or liters less were consumed than during the year 2021, which could translate into around one kilogram. less per week than last year. Here also weighs a greater consumption outside the home, in bars and restaurants.
There is also a reduction above the food average in the consumption of various dry food products such as sugar, flour and semolina or oil, and wine in the case of beverages.
By specific categories, and in a similar way to previous years, the foods that accounted for the highest volume of consumption per capita were fruits, with 80.67 kg per person and year, followed by potatoes and fresh vegetables, with an average intake per person of 68.55 kg per year. In the whole of 2022, fresh food represented 37.3% of the volume.
