Saturday, March 22, 2008
Grocery Prices Rise 8% in the Canary Islands
Thinking of going self-catering on holiday in Tenerife? Considering moving to the Canary Islands? Then you'll want to know what things cost and how much they're going up, so you can budget your living expenses. 
This report in Thursday's Canarias7 (via) says that the price of bread has risen (pun unintended) by 16.1% in the last year (at national level the rise was 11.6%), bringing the average cost of a loaf to more than 2 euros. Milk has become 25.4% more expensive (27.7% nationally), to reach an average of 98 cents per liter.
Dairy products in general have increased by 11.6% (10.5% in Spain) taking the average price of yogurts (I think they mean a 4-pack) to 1.12 euros and a semi-cured cheese to 10.03 euros. The price of eggs has increased 25.2% (double the national average, where the cost increased by 11.6%), reaching a price (per dozen) of 2.46 euros for XL size and 2.04 euros for large eggs. 
Fresh fruit has gone up in the last year by 14.2% (9.8% in Spain as a whole), bringing the average price of apples and oranges to 1.93 and 1.46 euros, respectively (presumably, per kilo). Vegetables and fresh pulses have increased in price by 10.5% (5.5% nationally), which brings the cost of a lettuce close to a euro, salad tomatoes to 1.72 euros and mushrooms to 5.42 euros (per kilo.)
Poultry prices have risen by 8.7% in February (they had dropped since November 2007, when the annual rate of increase had reached 20%), putting the price of chicken at 3.35 euros (again, presumably for a kilo). Veal has increased 2.8% to an average of 18.75 euros and lamb (not that you ever see it here) has risen 10.5%. Only the prices of pork, cooking oil and spuds have reduced.
If farmers react to food price rises in the UK, they are doing so here too, with a blog, published from the island of El Hierro, covering the worldwide Crisis Ganadera (Farming Crisis), where they reiterate the 8% rise in food prices and highlight the discrepancy between this and the average rise in salaries, of between 4 to 4.5%. (Average salaries in the Canary Islands are already the second lowest in Spain at 1470.61 euros (about 1142 quid), per month.)
Compared to the average basket of groceries going up by 12 per cent in a year (17 per cent in two years) in the UK, plus an average of 15% in "unjustified" energy price rises and salary rises forecast (Anyone got actual data for the UK?) in 2007 of just 3.6%, you might wonder what there is to complain about.
However, one person, from the Canary Islands, living in Germany, comments that wages there are double, while prices are half those here in these islands.
Canarias Bruta also publish their Cesta Bruta (cesta being [shopping] basket), occasionally, which lists prices in several of the big supermarkets here.
Convert prices from euros to pounds sterling or into dead presidents here.
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2 Comments:
Pamela Heywood wrote (on
March 30, 2008)
Yes, I'm tempted to ask if the USA does anything that isn't badly-thought-out, but I fear that I already know the answer to that question. Bio fuel seems like a totally stupid idea to me.
Neither am I surprised that costs would be higher in La Palma. I just console myself with the belief that, overall, the cost of living can't yet be as bad as the UK.
I think La Palma's a little more expensive than Tenerife. I suppose it makes sense - most imported food comes via Tenerife and the extra journey has to be paid for.
Most people seem to think the global rise in food prices is the result of the USA's badly-thought-out bio fuel programme. Four gallons of deisil in for every 5 gallons of bio-fuel out, and diverting millions of acres of land to produce fuel instead of food.
Wouldn't it be simpler just to turn things off when we're not using them?