The price of the food basket monitored by DECO PROTeste eased last week, yet broccoli stands out as its price has surged by 39% this year.
“Broccoli is now the item in the DECO PROTeste food basket with the highest price increase compared to January 1st of this year. A kilogram of broccoli can now cost 3.87 euros, which is 1.08 euros more (an increase of 39%) than in the first week of the year. Last week, from September 24 to October 1, the price for this vegetable rose by 12 cents per kilogram (up by 3 percent),” the consumer protection organization’s statement reads.
However, not all news is grim, as the “price of the monitored food basket by DECO PROTeste, on the other hand, recorded a slight decrease of 48 cents (down 0.20%) last week, bringing the cost to 241.97 euros.”
“Still, it is more expensive than in the first week of 2025, marking one of the highest prices since DECO PROTeste started tracking the price of this essential goods basket in 2022. At the beginning of January this year, it cost 5.81 euros less (down by 2.46 percent). Almost four years ago, on January 5, 2022, the same products could be purchased for 54.27 euros less (down by 28.91 percent),” as noted in the released statement.
Which products have seen the biggest price increases?
In the last week, from September 24 to October 1, the products with the highest percentage price increases were red potatoes (up by 11%), hake medallions (up by 8%), and cereal flakes (up by 8 percent).
Comparing this week’s prices with those from the first week of the year, on January 1, 2025, besides broccoli, the most significant percentage price increases were seen in products like ground roasted coffee (up by 29%), oranges (up by 28%), and eggs (up by 28 percent).
On the other hand, since DECO PROTeste began this analysis on January 5, 2022, the largest percentage increases have been in beef for boiling (up by 97%), eggs (up by 81%), and oranges (up by 77 percent).
How is the price of the basket calculated?
Since January 2022, the consumer protection organization “has been tracking the evolution of essential food prices, analyzing, every Wednesday, the total cost of a basket based on prices collected the previous day in major supermarkets with online stores.”
“The process starts by calculating the average price per product across all available online stores in the simulator. Then, by summing the average price of all products, the basket’s cost for a specific day is obtained,” it is stated.
This week, between September 10 and 17, DECO PROTeste highlights horse mackerel, fresh hake, and beef for boiling as the top three products that have seen the most price increase over the last seven days.
