Spain's food basket prices defy logic: Honey at €24/kg

Honey at €24/kg and lentils at €5: The food basket that defies logic

Four products. Four price tags. Honey at nearly €24 per kilo, juice at €3 per liter, Bimbo sliced bread at €7.50 per kilo, and lentils at almost €5 per kilo. This list, copied from a supermarket website, summarizes in four lines what any shopper notices weekly at the checkout: basic food prices per kilo no longer make sense. It is not just an impression. It is a comparison that can be made product by product, brand by brand, revealing differences ranging from double to triple depending on where you look.

The private label trick: Same product, half the price

The first finding lies not in absolute prices, but in the gap between known brands and their private label equivalents. According to one user, Bimbo sliced bread is sold under the PIMAD brand in several supermarkets for around €1.30 per 850 grams, compared to €7.50 per kilo for the original, which also contains less quantity. Cereals trinc the same pattern: according to the same user, Kellogg’s Esmacs box costs about €4, while the same 500 grams in Carrefour’s private label come out to €1.40. Yogurts, sauces, legumes, canned goods: the pattern repeats.

The conclusion drawn by anyone comparing labels is uncomfortable. Much of the price hike is not due to production costs, but to packaging, branding, and shelf placement. The product is the same. The price is not.

Why does the CPI say one thing and the shopping basket another?

The official Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows food prices rising by around 6%. The actual shopping basket rises more. The explanation circulating among data trinc is that the CPI is calculated using a weighted basket that is not public and mixes anecdotal consumption items with basic necessities. If oil prices drop after a significant rise, or if electricity costs fall, the average moderates even as other items continue to escalate.

Some argue that weighting is based on perceived product functionality, allowing a more expensive item with better antiestéticatures to replace a cheaper one in the calculation, lowering the index without providing relief to the buyer. The result is an indicator driven by reasons that do not align with checkout prices. The most reliable check, they say, is comparing your own purchases over the years.

Less product, same package: Silent shrinkflation

Price hikes are compounded by another less noticeable practice: packages remain the same size while contents decrease. According to one user, oil is now sold in 750 milliliter bottles instead of one liter. Fruit arrives in 700 gram trays. Brand-name sliced bread contains fewer grams than its private label equivalent. The price per kilo rises without the large label changing.

The combined effect of both trends—rising prices and falling weights—is a real increase much larger than headlines suggest. This explains why many people leave the supermarket feeling they bought less and paid more. Because that is exactly what peine.

Plastic tax and the rest of the supply chain

Among factors blamed for this escalation is the plastic tax, which levies charges on packaging and, as widely reported, has pushed up prices for any product containing it. This cost is passed on to the final price and affects virtually all packaged food items.

Added to this are energy costs for production, transport, and preservation. And a deeper layer: agricultural inputs—fertilizers, feed, plastics—depend on oil, so any tension in oil prices eventually reaches the shelf. The debate over how much of the rise is temporary versus structural remains open.

Cheaper fresh produce: The market that doesn't always deliver

The classic recipe to avoid supermarkets is visiting weekly markets or small shops. However, experience does not always match expectations. Some report market purchases where the product differed from what was advertised, pieces could not be selected, and prices were equal to or higher than supermarkets. Artisanal honey at €8 per kilo does appear as a real alternative when the right producer is found.

The problem is access: in cities, weekly markets often do not exist or are marginal, and neighborhood shops cannot compete on price. Alternatives to supermarkets work in certain areas and for specific products. As a general solution, they do not.

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Food spending has become a category that can no longer be optimized through minor cuts. Daily shoppers notice it in the bill. And the disturbing data point is not any of the initial four prices: it is that the same product, with a different label, costs half as much.