The government admits that the drought and the war in Ukraine complicates curbing inflation

The government believes in it the price of food end with gradual moderation in the “next period”” but at the same time recognizes that drought And also conflict with the grain launched in some Eastern EU countries and this has led to the blockade of some products from Ukraine in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, which creates uncertainty that can complicate price containment. This was first explained by the General Secretary of Agriculture and Food, Fernando Miranda, during the presentation of data from the food industry on Tuesday. There he said that “there is no specific day on which, say, this day the prices will fall. We are in a moment of great uncertainty and we have to wait and see impact of drought. As many raw materials reduce their prices, a backlog is observed and in some sectors a drop in prices is observed, but this largely depends on the situation in each of them. However, he said that prices in Spain have risen less than in 16 European countries.

A little later, at a press conference after the Council of Ministers, Agriculture Minister Luis Planas expressed optimism regarding the downward trend in prices, which, according to him, began to appreciate in February and March. He explained that he was in a “difficult moment” marked drought and Ukrainian war, which causes a complicated situation in international markets, has achieved “containment and reduction of origin prices”. And he added that this “should lead to cheaper food for citizens. We took measures in December and we persist in this policy”.

Apart from those statements, how these two factors can affect prices. In the case of the conflict with grain, which mainly affects the solidarity corridors opened after the war to ensure outlets for Ukrainian production, it can be concluded from the minister’s statements that everything will depend somewhat on the duration of the agreement Black Sea which enables the export of grain through ports. In this sense, he reminded that Spain is the second destination country for Ukrainian grains (especially corn), after China.

In case of droughtEverything will depend on the crops that can or cannot be planted due to lack of water. The point is that the lack of this resource meant that some rainfed crops could not be sown or those that were could experience a reduction as happened last year. In the case of irrigation, there are also productions that are in the air. In this regard, Planas presented a report on Sustainable Irrigation Policy within the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), which foresees up to 2,130 million euros of public-private investments until 2027 to optimize irrigation. And he gave information that summarizes the importance of this type of agriculture: “Irrigation occupies 23% of the usable agricultural area (UAA) in Spain and generates 65% of crop production in Spain».