The gap between what farmers in the Region of Murcia charge for fresh produce and what we pay in the supermarkets is widening, virtually tripling in size in recent months. The agricultural sector is already struggling, between the war in Ukraine pushing up the costs of electricity and fertiliser and recent storms irrevocably damaging harvests, and this so-called artificial inflation is a further blow.
The average farmer in Murcia is paid between €0.70 cents and €1.25 for apricots, while shoppers will fork out up to €3.95 for the same product in the supermarket A similar trend can be seen in peaches, lemons and nectarines, whose prices are two and a half times higher in stores than what they originally cost.
it is a general trend throughout the country, and it is a very strong speculative phenomenon that is largely motivated by inflation. That is serving as an excuse so that food distribution and supermarkets, in general, are causing an artificial rise in prices: explained Alfonso Gelvez, general secretary of the Agrarian Association of Young Farmers (Asaja) in the Region of Murcia.
Source: murciatoday.com