Food prices in 2024 reveal stark contrasts: some increases hit budgets, while other decreases offer welcome respite.
Can the French finally hope for a drop in the price of food products ? According to the latest figures published by INSEE on January 15, the horizon seems to be brightening. The statistics institute highlights a notable slowdown in price rise.
“Apart from tobacco, consumer price are also less dynamic than in 2023: +1.8% in 2024, after +4.8%”specifies its press release. This decline takes place in a context where inflation, which has been galloping for a long time, seems lose strength.
After reaching the heights of +5.2% in 2022 and +4.9% in 2023, average inflation for the year 2024 drops to a much more modest +2.0%. A breath of fresh air for households, who have suffered head-on the surge in prices over the past two years.
While these data offer a glimmer of hope, they also serve as a reminder of the fragility of the economic situation. This slowdown in pricescould well represent a crucial turning point for purchasing power, after these two years.
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Olive oil, mirror of dryness
If general inflation tends to slow down, certain products continue to add to the billespecially in food aisles. At the head of these outbreaks is olive oil, whose prices have jumped 28.3% in one yearaccording to INSEE.
An increase which finds its source in a shortage linked to repeated droughtsupsetting the harvests of the great European producers.
Spain, which largely dominates the market with 65.6% of production of the European Union, illustrates this crisis. Between 2022 and 2023, its production collapsedgoing from 1.49 million to 0.68 million tonnes.
“In Andalusia and Catalonia, the light autumn rain were not enough to fill the water tables. Since then, almost nothing has fallen and the rivers are dry. We don’t maybe be worried as for the next harvest”declared Hélène Lasserre, director of the conservation and research center of France Olive, at Figaro.
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-Italy does not hardly been sparedsuffering a 27% drop in production, while Greece, with an increase of 42%, was not enough to compensate.
When inflation comes to the table
The year 2024 will thus have widened a gap between pleasures of the table and consumer budgets. Among the victims of this price surge, chocolatean essential treat, sees its cost soar by 10.3%.
An increase attributable to the explosion of cocoa pricedriven by disastrous harvests in West Africa and low stocks. In New York, the ton of cocoa reached 12,931 dollars in December, a staggering figure, marking a 200% increase in just one year.
This crisis is not limited to bars: even powdered chocolate shows a increase of 6.8% over the year, also affecting households.
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Thinning on the food shelves
If the year 2024 was marked by price surges in certain sectors, it also offered some welcome drops. Frozen fruits, for example, show a notable decrease, making these alternatives practical more accessible.
Likewise, the edible oils and fatsexcluding olives, experienced a significant decline: the price index of margarines, peanut butters and oils such as corn, sunflower or soy fell respectively by 6,9 % et 7,3 %.
These declines thus illustrate a respite for householdswhose purchasing power has been put to the test in recent years.
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