Spanish shoppers could be forgiven for a lack of seasonal cheer as their favorite festive seafoods shot up in price during the month of December up to Christmas Eve.
Analyzing price evolution per kilogram of sea bream, farmed sea bass, hake, baby eel, non-frozen cooked prawns, Galician goose barnacles, carpet shell clams and oysters one month before Christmas, 15 days before Christmas and on Christmas Eve, Spain’s Consumers and Users Organization (CUO) detected wider differentials between the three periods than revealed in previous studies.
The greatest price increases were recorded for farmed sea bream, sea bass, baby eel and oysters, which CUO described were “within the reach of very few pockets this Christmas.”
CUO visited seven leading supermarkets and hypermarkets: Ahorramás, Alcampo, Caprabo, Carrefour, El Corte Inglés, Eroski and Mercadona, as well as Municipal Markets across the country.
Alcampo proved the cheapest overall with El Corte Inglés the most expensive. Baby eel and goose barnacles — considered the height of luxury for Christmas celebrations — were the most notable absences among the outlets analyzed.
Prices per kilogram during the month before Christmas revealed sea bream at EUR 30.12 (USD 39.46). This had risen 29 percent to EUR 38.81 (USD 50.84) on Christmas Eve.
Farmed sea bass started out at EUR 8.36 (USD 10.95), and rose to EUR 10.40 (USD 13.62), a 24 percent increase.
Having cost EUR 8.47 (USD 11.09) at the start of the analysis, hake experienced a 16 percent increase to EUR 9.83 (USD 12.87) by the end of the period.
Baby eel had cost EUR 660 (USD 865) per kilogram a month before Christmas, but this leaped 33 percent to EUR 875 (USD 1,146) per kilogram on Christmas Eve.
With the lowest price rise of 6 percent, non-frozen cooked prawns, which had been EUR 9.33 (USD 12.22), ended the period at EUR 9.85 (USD 12.90).
The initial EUR 68.43 (USD 89.66) per kilogram paid for Galician goose barnacles rose 8 percent to EUR 73.66 (USD 96.51).
Consumers of carpet shell clams enjoyed healthy savings as price fell 14 percent from EUR 16.50 (USD 21.61) to EUR 14.20 (USD 18.60).
Registering the third highest price hike of 28 percent, a dozen oysters previously EUR 24.53 (USD 32.13) had reached EUR 31.48 (USD 41.24) by the end of the exercise.
Of the Municipal Markets, Barcelona’s Mercabarna had been particularly conscious of consumers’ price concerns, and had publicized “tasty and economic” Christmas fish menus at EUR 13 to 15 (USD 17 to 19.65) per person.
