Food industry can’t avoid price hikes

The President of PortugalFoods, Amândio Santos has admitted that Portugal’s food industry, has no choice but to increase prices if it is to remain viable. But he says all players in the food production and distribution chain must share the pain of lower margins in support of consumers who are feeling the pinch.

Speaking in an interview with ECO Online, Santos said that the food retail sector too had to make an effort so that consumers can buy food.
“It’s impossible right now to stop the escalation of prices. It’s impossible. It is the law of supply and demand at work. The industry needs to increase prices, the consumer wants competitive prices, and retail has to make an effort.”
In an interview with ECO on the sidelines of the Dare2Change conference in Porto, the spokesperson for the food production sector — made up of 11,000 companies and employs 200,000, exporting €8.4Bn in 2022 – suggested a “joint effort to reduce margins” and said “there had never been such a need for a dialogue that was clear and transparent between industry, production and retail, as now.”
Santos said that there have been extreme disruptions in the supply chain, that the sector was faced with increased costs, and that these prices were inevitably being passed on to the consumer.
“We are really concerned about this because price elasticity is very short and the consumer has increasing difficulties in filling its basket with food.
“It has to be a joint effort from all the players in the food chain to reduce margins for the consumer to continue to access products. (at a reasonable price)
Santos stressed that it was in the interests of all parties because “if the consumer hasn’t got the ability to buy, we will all suffer. Prices have to be sufficiently transparent and correct so that all can continue to conduct their businesses.”