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At Christmas time, the shopping basket is filled with more sophisticated and special foods, because the occasion deserves it. But that also means that the budget increases considerably, especially in recent years when the cost of living is much higher. If you do not want to have surprises and that your Christmas budget fits well, the OCU has made the first wave of the price observatory and has warned that Christmas lunches and dinners will be the “most expensive” in recent years. But which foods will rise the most?
Specifically, clams are the product whose price has risen the most after increasing by 23%, followed by sea bream (+11%), red cabbage (+7%), turkey (+6%), veal round (+5%), pineapple and Galician barnacles (+1%).
On the other hand, the products whose prices have fallen the most are sea bass and hake, whose prices have dropped by 13%, followed by prawns (-12%), oysters (-5%), pomegranate (-5%) and elvers (-1%). Thus, in the study only two products keep their price the same as in 2022. These are Iberian ham and suckling lamb.
Shopping basket at all-time highs
According to data from the first of the three planned controls, this year prices are maintained, with an average increase of 0% compared to increases of 8% in 2021 and 5.2% in 2022. However, the consumer organization warns that most of the prices of the products in the Christmas basket remain at “historic highs”.
Thus, the most important increases are focused on products with a smaller supply than usual and with strong demand at this time. Some meats are the protagonists of the increases and the price decreases with respect to 2022 are more pronounced in fish. However, OCU warns that 11 of the products contained in the basket are at record highs so that again this year the traditional Christmas dinners will be the “most expensive” in recent years.
Given this scenario, the consumer organization recommends a good planning of Christmas dinners, advance purchases, take advantage of offers or replace the most expensive products by other more affordable ones to avoid the typical price increases in the coming weeks. Thus, the products that make up this Christmas basket are suckling lamb to roast by quarters, round of beef, pork, turkey, turkey, Iberian ham cut, red cabbage, pineapple, sea bream, sea bass aquaculture, hake cut, elvers, boiled prawns, Galician barnacles, clams and oysters, and pomegranate.