Fruit, vegetables, potatoes. Eating has never been so expensive. Potatoes? In Italy increased by 40%. Fresh fruit? Again in Italy, 12% more expensive. The shopping cart, the real one, is in the price variation between 2022 and 2023 recorded by Eurostat. The European Statistical Institute tries to offer a less negative view of the situation, through the general trend. Overall, in 2023 there is “a change compared to the strong price increases that characterized 2021 and 2022”. In other words, there is “a halt in the sharp increase in agricultural prices in 2023”. At the same time, however, 2023 is characterized by “significant increases” for olive oil (54%), potatoes, including seed potatoes (23%), pigs (22%) and eggs (20%).
As for potatoes, this product saw a surge especially in Germany (+49.1%), Slovakia (+48%) and Croatia (+44.3%), with Italy immediately behind, fourth in Europe due to price increases (+40.3%).
As for olive oil, an element at the center of the Mediterranean diet and the flagship of ‘made in Italy’, bad news for Italians: increases of over a fifth (+22.2%) in the space of a year on the starting price of 2022. But in the end things went better in Italy, if we look at the increases recorded in the other main producing countries (+80.6% in Portugal, +70.7% in Spain, +66.8% in Greece).
The price increases have not even spared vegetables on which oil is often put for seasoning at the table. In the EU, vegetables recorded an increase of 8.7% in 2023 and 5.8% in Italy. But price increases approached 30% in Latvia, and prices increased by more than 20% in Slovakia and Poland. The trend in the meat sector is different, where the increase in Italian costs stands out as exceeding the European average both for pigs (+23.3% versus +21.1%) and for veal (+9, 9% versus 8.4%). Steak, chop and barbecue with friends are therefore becoming more and more demanding, from an economic point of view.
Not even milk, a key product for breakfast and desserts, has been spared and is not synonymous with savings, despite a general reduction at EU level of 1.6% compared to 2022 costs. Because in Italy there are increases in prices of 6% . A small thing compared to the price increases in Spain (+31%) and Greece (+21%), but still a reason for higher grocery bills for Italian families, who have to slalom around egg price increases for their food . In Italy they have become 15% more expensive in the space of a year. A lower cost increase than the average (19.7%) and much lower than the price increases recorded in Croatia (+40.8%), Hungary (+37.3%) or Spain (+29.5%).