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The prices of some sunflower oils have increased by 70% in just over two weeks, according to a new website launched in Spain to track the cost of olive and other cooking oils, and milk in the main supermarket chains.
The price hike comes as consumers accuse supermarkets of inflating prices to avoid the IVA sales tax reduction approved by the government. With the price for olive oil skyrocketing in recent times and its price tripling since 2021, according to INE (national institute of statistics) data, consumers are fed up.
The national ministry of agriculture has always argued that supermarkets have adjusted their margins as much as possible to avoid passing on the entire increase to the consumer. But Spain's leading consumer association Facua said there are still "establishments with disproportionate prices".
For this reason, it has launched a new website where consumers can check the variation in oil prices between different supermarkets, by the day, fortnight and month. And the first data points to increases of more than 70% in the price of some sunflower oils in certain chains in just two weeks.
"The website is a tool with which we aim to empower consumers. The aim is that we can all become market watchdogs and know who is raising food prices, how much and when," said Facua's secretary general Rubén Sánchez.
In addition to these two items - olive oil and sunflower oil - Facua has also added milk, and the idea is to expand the range of products as consumers demand. "The idea is to detect rises in a sector that is a great oligopoly and which boasts the highest levels of competition in Europe, but which in reality has identical prices in some foods, such as its own brands," the association said. "Not all the rises have been the result of increased costs, but of increasing margins at the cost of impoverishing Spanish families," the association added.
Facua said a complaint was filed with the ministry of consumer affairs after having detected, according to its analysis, that many supermarkets agreed on the price of olive oil for their own brands. "We are confident that the ministry will end up opening a sanctioning file," it said.
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