Email
August 15
Dear sir,
After enjoying a few months of dropping fuel prices, they are now steadily rising again. Some say due to greater demand, as this year the Spanish have used their cars to go on their annual summer holidays.
There is certainly a lot more traffic around and finding a parking place in Benidorm, which is not easy at the best of times, is almost impossible, although over the past year, the council has cleared waste ground and provided free parking in certain parts of the town and it’s outskirts, but it’s still a fair walk into the town centre. Maybe they could provide a bus stop nearby?
Back to rising prices… when the cost of fuel dropped, I expected certain supermarket products to drop as well, after transport from field to supermarket, or from manufacturer to supermarket, was cheaper, but this never happened.
Also bad harvests, the war in Ukraine and lack of water were blamed for rising agricultural prices… but having to pay €7 to €8 for a bottle of extra virgin olive oil is painful. And I will certainly be stocking up, as the harvest this year is estimated to drop by 45% in comparison to 2022. Use your imagination as to what will happen to olive oil prices, all I can say is good things are cars don’t run on it.
But the good news is that some fish and shellfish prices have dropped, forget about salmon, that’s still very pricey but sardines and local bay fish are cheap and cheerful, and I spotted 2 kilos of frozen king prawns at 17.99 at Mercadona, when I know full fact I paid €20 for them last year.
So basically it’s cheaper to feast on prawns than eat meat, and two kilos will do for more than one meal!
The price of vegetables has also risen, although the cheapest place to get these are still the local weekly markets. I will also have to resort to drinking milk in my coffee again, as oat milk has now almost doubled its price.
Sadly, I don’t see the cost of day to day living dropping for many years to come and we will just have to adapt and tighten our belts.
What is clear to me, somebody somewhere is making a lot of money at our cost.
Alexandra Blair
