The employers of the distribution Aecoc has assured this Tuesday that the value chain of the great consumption has been “a long time” containing the costs in food so as not to affect its increase in the consumers. He points out that Spain is one of the countries where food prices have risen the least with an increase of 7.9% until May.
This is how the Association of Manufacturers and Distributors (Aecoc) has reacted, in an assessment sent to Efe, after the proposal of the second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz , that consumers and distributors agree on a “basic shopping basket” with maximum prices established.
“The value chain of mass consumption has been doing a great containment exercise for a long time so as not to pass on to the consumer the large increase in costs that it is suffering in a markedly inflationary context,” said Aecoc, made up of 30,000 partners, including Mercadona. , Coca-Cola or El Corte Inglés.
The employers have urged to apply reductions in the value added tax (VAT) of food and “not to introduce more tax measures that add costs to companies and reduce the competitiveness of the sector.”
He highlighted that Spain is one of the European countries where food prices have increased the least in 2022, specifically 7.9% in the first five months of the year, among other reasons due to the adjustments and the reduction in margins carried out out by sector.
“No European country has been able to avoid a notable rise in the price of food in a scenario of great geopolitical and economic complexity”, assured Aecoc, which explained that the increase in these prices is a direct consequence of the increase in other essential costs such as energy , raw materials and transport, which are produced “despite the efforts of the sector”.
In his opinion, unlike other countries, the low concentration of the sector in Spain and the existing competition between operators and brands gives the consumer a “great capacity for choice, which avoids the risk of speculation and plays in favor of containment of prices”.
Aecoc has specified that Spain is the European country where the five largest supermarkets in the country add a smaller market share (48.6% of the total) , in contrast to the opposite case of the Netherlands, where they accumulate a share of 79, 4 %.