By the end of the year, bread will rise in price by more than 20% - expert
Kyiv • UNN
Food inflation in Ukraine reached 23%, significantly exceeding overall consumer inflation. This leads to an increase in prices for meat and bread, while dairy producers suffer losses due to falling purchase prices and reduced exports to the EU.
Food inflation in Ukraine stands at 23%, significantly exceeding the overall consumer inflation rate, with food products increasingly 'eating up' family budgets. Despite the seasonal decrease in vegetable prices, meat and bread prices continue to rise, and dairy producers are incurring losses due to falling procurement prices and reduced exports to the EU. Denys Marchuk, deputy head of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, stated this during a briefing, as reported by a correspondent for UNN.
Details
According to the deputy, the cost of the food basket has increased compared to last year across all product groups. And due to the increase in consumer inflation in June, prices began to rise even more.
So, effectively, if our consumer inflation is around 14%, then food inflation is within 23%, and these are very high figures, meaning it's disproportionate to wages; food effectively consumes a very large percentage of Ukrainian families' budgets.
He added that there is a positive aspect due to seasonality. When more vegetables and fruits become available by the end of July, there is a certain price reduction. At the same time, the situation with dairy products has "slightly improved" for consumers but worsened for producers.
If our price for dairy products dropped by about 2%, then the price for producers, from whom they are purchased, dropped by 20%.
This, as the official explains, is due to the fact that "export potential to the Eurozone has decreased." Partially because of this, according to him, the situation with meat products may become most acute at this time, meaning their prices are not decreasing because "the equivalent cost of feed is quite expensive due to the high price of grain." In particular, Ukrainians can expect another increase in bread prices.
Bread in our country also shows a monthly dynamic of 1.5-2% growth, so by the end of 25 (year - ed.) we will see the figures of 24, when the price will increase by 20-22%. Well, we hope that there will still be enough precipitation, enough sun, and the situation with vegetables in season, from the end of August, September, will be much better than last year.
According to him, last year's situation worsened additionally due to, which led to peak prices precisely during the period when people expected products to become cheaper.