Although the forecast is that food prices will moderate in the coming months, the Government's forecast is less rosy for olive oil, the product in the shopping basket that has increased the most in the last year ( 52.5%). The acting Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, anticipated this Tuesday that although the next olive campaign will be "more important" in volume than the previous one, it will not be "significant."
In this sense, he recalled that there is a correlation between the production volume and the record prices that this food has reached in recent months, coinciding with a campaign in which production fell by 55%, to 663,000 tons, compared to the usual figure, around 1.4 million tons. Despite this, the head of Agriculture was confident that in the coming months the price "will be lower than what it currently is." A hope that he bases on the beneficial effect that the latest rains may have on crops, although "it is still too early to know to what extent," he acknowledged.
In addition to olive oil, the minister also referred to other products that have pushed up the prices of the shopping basket: sugar (42.5%) and rice, with year-on-year increases of 42.5% and 21.6%, respectively. In the first case, he explained that the reference price was affected by low production worldwide, while in the second case it was largely due to the lack of rain and the decrease in irrigation supplies in producing areas, which which led, for example, to some producers in the Guadalquivir marshes preferring not to plant.
At the same time, the Executive anticipates possible tensions in cereal prices, since the harvest is expected to be reduced by 40%, to 11 million tons - the production range in Spain is usually between 18 and 24 million - . It is common for Spain to buy cereals from abroad, “but this year it will have to buy more,” he warned.
