Prices of some basic European foodstuffs keep skyrocketing
Olive oil is continuing its staggering rise in prices in Europe.
BRUSSELS — These days, think twice before you lavishly ladle olive oil onto your pasta, salad or crusty bread.
Olive oil, a daily staple of Mediterranean cuisine and the life of many a salad throughout Europe, is experiencing a staggering rise in price. It's a prime example of how food still outruns overall inflation in the European Union.
Olive oil has increased by about 75% since January 2021, dwarfing overall annual inflation that has already been considered unusually high over the past few years and even stood at 11.5% in October last year. And much of the food inflation has come over the past two years alone.
In Spain, the world's biggest olive oil producer, prices jumped 53% in August compared to the previous year and a massive 115% since August 2021.
Apart from olive oil, “potato prices were also on a staggering rise,” according to EU statistical agency Eurostat. «Since January 2021, prices for potatoes increased by 53% in September 2023.
And if high- and middle-income families can shrug off such increases relatively easily, it becomes an ever increasing burden for poorer families, many of which have been unable to even match an increase of their wages to the overall inflation index.
“By contrast,” said the European Trade Union Confederation, or ETUC, “nominal wages have increased by 11% in the EU,” making sure that gap keeps on increasing.
“Wages are still failing to keep up with the cost of the most basic food stuffs, including for workers in the agriculture sector itself, forcing more and more working people to rely on foodbanks,” said Esther Lynch, the union's general-secretary.
Annual inflation fell sharply to 2.9% in October, its lowest in
Read more on abcnews.go.com
