Aubergine prices in Spain from field to fork jump 938%
Article continues below
break]
Retailers are asking unbelievably high prices.
Consumers had to pay 1.66 euros, according to the aforementioned study, called "Index of Food Prices at Origin and Destination" (Ipod), which these groups have been publishing since May 2008.
This means that the gap between the price paid to the producer and that paid by the consumer reached 938%; or in other words, that the price from field to fork was multiplied by 10.38.
In the report for April, aubergines recorded the second widest margin, only behind cabbage, whose price increased by 958% from origin to destination. Next in the ranking are apples, with a gap exceeding 500%, from the 0.30 euros per kilo paid to the growers to the 1.88 euros on average at retailers.
Within the scope of fruits and vegetables in the province of Almeria, courgettes were another food recording major differences between the price at origin and its value at destination, as growers were paid 0.27 euros, compared to 1.47 euros in the retail.
These figures show a percentage increase of 441%, i.e. the price multiplied by 5.4 from field to fork. Furthermore, tomatoes for salad recorded a 414% gap between the prices at origin and destination, from 0.42 to 2.16 euros.
Behind aubergines, courgettes and tomatoes, next in the ranking are cucumbers, which during April recorded an average price at origin of 0.31 euros, compared to 1.56 euros in the retail, which represented a 403% increase. Other fruit and vegetable products, such as peppers, recorded increases always above 200%.
In the case of green peppers, the increase recorded from field to fork reached 217%. It was somewhat higher in the case of red peppers, with a 256% gap.
Looking at the 25 foods from agriculture and livestock taken into account in April by Coag, UCE and Ceaccu, the global differential in relation to the previous month has gone from slightly less than 280% to 308%. ■