New data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food shows a continued tightening of Spanish households’ spending on food. The annual total has edged down to about 590 kilograms or liters per household, marking a dip of roughly 9 percent from the prior period.
The latest update, based on October figures, analyzes consumer patterns across Spain for the twelve months ending October 2022, compared with November 2021 through October 2022. This period saw a clearer pullback in purchases while household food and drink expenditures did not fall as sharply, staying near 1000 euros or slightly above for the year. The total outlay decreased around 2.8 percent, reflecting a trend where per-person costs rose earlier in the period due to higher prices but the overall quantity purchased declined more noticeably.
In October, the report notes a 6.9 percent rise in purchase prices, a record but still lower than the year’s consumer price index for food, which exceeded 14 percent. Across the country, food and beverage spending totaled 73.574 billion euros in the year, representing a 2.5 percent reduction from the previous twelve months.
By category, Spanish families reduced purchases across nearly all products evaluated. Two smaller segments slipped the least, such as raw milk and PGI wines, which remained among the few bright spots in the period’s red numbers.
Meat demand declined sharply, with a year-over-year drop of 12.4 percent. Frozen goods fell by 19.2 percent, while fresh meats and related products also saw decreases. In fresh poultry and pork, declines of 13.8 percent and 10.0 percent respectively were recorded, yet these categories were among the more resilient as the year progressed.
The agriculture ministry described a pronounced contraction within the fisheries sector, with overall declines around 15 percent and fresh products down roughly 16.3 percent. The dairy sector contracted by about 6.5 percent as households reduced consumption of liquid milk by 5.8 percent and dairy products by 7.4 percent.
Other staples followed the downward trend, with eggs dropping 8.9 percent and confectionery about 16.7 percent. Bread purchases fell by around 7 percent, with a further small decline of 2.2 percent evident by October 2022’s rolling year end.
Oil markets showed divergent behavior. Liquid oil helped lift olive oil sales by 24.7 percent, even as the overall demand for oil dropped by 8.5 percent and prices rose an average of 36.4 percent. Fresh produce also retreated, with lower consumption of fresh vegetables and potatoes by 13.9 percent and fresh fruit by 12.2 percent, signaling a broader tightening in pantry staples.
Regarding beverages, no category managed to recover from the year-earlier figures. Wines and derivatives fell by 13.8 percent, soft drinks by 6.3 percent, and bottled drinking water by 2.8 percent. The overall pattern points to household strategies that emphasize budget control, even as some items become comparatively more expensive.
These shifts reflect not only temporary price movements but also lasting changes in buying behavior as households recalibrate what they purchase and how much they spend on food and drink as prices fluctuate. The data offer a snapshot of consumer resilience and adaptation in the face of evolving costs across the Spanish market.