Portugal’s essential food basket has risen by €68 in five years

Food prices in Portugal have continued to rise since 2021. The value of DECO Proteste’s basket of 63 essential products was €188 five years ago and is now about €256, a difference of €68. The overall food-price increase over the period was roughly 30%, while current food inflation was reported at 2.4%. The basket comparison shows how much more households may need to set aside for the same monitored list.

Nuno Figueiredo, a spokesperson for DECO Proteste, said prices remained at historically high levels and that the upward trend had not ended. He pointed to cod as an example: its price was beginning to rise again ahead of the Christmas period, as it had the previous year. He also said hake, known in Portugal as pescada, had become €14 more expensive per kilogram since the start of the year. These examples do not mean every food product has increased by the same amount; they illustrate variation between categories.

The broader account also discussed fuel costs and placed price pressures in the context of economic conditions affected by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. That is context for the overall trend, rather than a calculation explaining each product’s price change. For shoppers, the clear comparison is that a monitored basket costs €68 more than it did five years ago, while some individual products are still becoming more expensive.

A price basket is a comparison tool and will not match every household’s shopping exactly. Product choices, shops, promotions and quantities all affect what people actually spend. The €256 figure is therefore not a bill for a typical household; it is the approximate total for the 63 products DECO Proteste tracks. Nor does food inflation of 2.4% mean every item or every supermarket has increased by that same rate.