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While certain kitchen staples like olive oil have come down in price this year, many more common cooking ingredients just keep flying up. With Spanish wages struggling to keep up with rising costs, for many of us these days there’s simply too much month at the end of the money, and our grocery hauls are suffering as a result.

 

In the Region of Murcia, families are increasingly often finding themselves having to cut down on buying healthy foods because they’re simply too expensive. It’s little wonder obesity levels are shooting up across the country when convenience and junk foods are sometimes so much cheaper.

 

The details have been spelled out in a new report called the VIII Aegon Health and Lifestyle Study, which found that 37.2% of people in the Region of Murcia have stopped consuming certain items due to the rise in price.

 

This shocking figure means that Murcia now ranks third in Spain for the percentage of people who’ve stopped buying certain foods because of price increases – only Asturias and Catalonia have lower figures.

 

Across the country, fish is the food whose consumption has decreased the most (46.5%) followed by meat (35.4%). Other staple foods that have seen a decline include fruit (18.8%), cereals (16.7%), dairy products (8.7%), vegetables (8.6%) and legumes and greens (6.7%).

 

That’s an awful lot of healthy ingredients to cut out of a weekly shopping basket.

 

Although most people are definitely feeling the pinch, the study found that more than eight of ten shoppers still prioritise quality over price in this increasingly health-conscious day and age. That’s a jump of almost 4% compared to the previous report, suggesting that even with prices rising across the board, most consumers still aren’t willing to compromise on quality when it comes to their health.

 

The group most likely to pay more for good-quality food are those aged between 26 and 40, with 87.8% saying they’re happy to spend a little extra. People whose finances have improved (90.3%), those with children (88.4%), people in work (88.6%) and those who say they follow a healthy diet (89.8%) also tend to invest more in better food.

 

Looking at the results across Spain, residents of La Rioja (94.3%), Castilla y León (90.6%) and the Region of Murcia (90.3%) show the strongest willingness to pay a premium for high-quality products.

 

At the other end of the scale, the Canary Islands (72.4%), Cantabria (73.2%) and the Balearic Islands (75.1%) show the lowest levels of interest in spending more for quality.

 

 

Image: Archive