we can see that the end of the year. Do not stop coming requests for yearbooks. This article is for the Yearbook of Agriculture of the voice, I do not know the date of publication.
Everyone knows that we are in crisis. This morning I visited a primary school in Almería to talk to the kids of 6 and 7 years of what is the economy and how the economy affects their lives. Apart from what I have fun with the children's responses, I can see they have a pretty good idea of \u200b\u200bwhat a crisis. They know that people have less money, they know that many older people have become unemployed and, curious, associate the name of politicians with the idea of \u200b\u200bcrisis.
therefore no exaggeration to say that everyone knows or intuits what is a crisis and its consequences: the closure of enterprises, the unemployed, lower income, lower consumption ... However, not all products is no longer consumed with the same intensity. As you pointed out the children, there are things importantes que otras. Pero como se supone que estamos hablando entre adultos y se tiende a creer que los economistas somos gente seria que dice cosas serias que casi nadie entiende, les diré que aquellos bienes que se encuentran en los primeros escalones de la pirámide de las necesidades de Maslow son las que menos se dejan de consumir como, por ejemplo, la comida. Si echamos un vistazo a lo que ha pasado en España en los dos últimos años, nos daremos cuenta que ha sido precisamente la comida el principal banderín de enganche de la publicidad y las promociones de la gran distribución. La racionalidad que hay debajo de este comportamiento no puede ser más sencilla, dado que lo último que dejarán de comprar los consumidores es el alimento, this is the claim that we use to convince them to cross our threshold.
On the other hand, even if not all consumers are at risk regarding their income, the feeling of fear is spread throughout the whole society, and since the growth of unemployment has been very big in Spain, almost everyone knows someone who has lost his job. To be understood, there is a saying castizo that explains it perfectly: "when you see your neighbor's beard strip, put yours to soak." To the extent that occur around us unemployment or stress due to the risk of losing our sense of fear increases and behave more restrained. In Spain, for many months, the marginal propensity to save was beating records. It was the realization of the widespread fear in society.
This behavior more carefully upset, how could it be otherwise, the patterns of consumption. Chapters such as leisure consumption in 2009 decreased by 2%. Hotels, restaurants and cafes, lost, for its part, 5%. As expected, those items highest on the scale of Maslow, with the exception of communications, were the most fell in that year. For example, transport fell 19%, furniture household equipment and another 16%. The total consumption of the English fell, but the food and drinks at home just moved (-0.5%) and even alcoholic beverages increased (11%), as spending on medicine and health. Not surprisingly, in a recession as we are leaving behind, diseases fire, because stress and pessimism contribute to our health deteriorates.
However, food in general lost some of bellows in 2009, but much less than other consumer sectors, as the theory said would happen. What happened in the meantime with fruits and vegetables? As food they are, have lost sales in the channels of the restaurant and hotel, but at home have increased significantly. According to the panel of food consumption compiled by the ministry of environment, rural and marine, fresh fruit consumption in English households increased by 11.8%, while that of vegetables did in 14.3%, offset channel widely-trade declines. Obviously, these percentages are calculated on kilos.
As you may suspect the learned reader, even if you are a farmer, this increased consumption should have had an upward impact on prices of these goods should have been moved upward in part to the lower part of the supply chain to reach the farmer. But this has not happened, on the contrary, prices have long downward, slowly but steadily. According to the series have estimated Cajamar Foundation, prices in the last year were, on average, 40% lower than in 1975 in real terms. That is, the basis on which underpin the main business activity Almeria is immersed in a deflationary spiral which can only cope by producing more or making it cheaper. Or both. On these issues can, if you want, browse the Campaign Analysis published by the foundation each year and is available on its website.
I am interested in this article is to show that, rising consumption, retail prices have not only grown, but have fallen significantly. It is clear that the crisis has a lot to do with it, although such assets should be more protected from price declines. It is also clear that the trend is decreasing for decades. To mention that according to the panel, the decline in average prices in 2009 was 6.3% for fruit and 3.7% for fresh vegetables, well below the CPI (-0.3%, calculated on annual averages .) Is there another reason that helps explain this behavior? I think so. Unlike past crises, this is the first truly global, because it occurred in the heart of the capitalist system: the U.S. financial system This creates more competition, regardless of economic conditions and promotes the decrease of prices. But this was the first crisis in Spain in which the retail accumulated most of the domestic market. The gradual disappearance of middlemen and retailers has led to a shortening of the chain (which lowers costs) but also have witnessed the excessive growth of many of the final agents. 20 years ago in this country hardly anyone knew the company Mercadona. Today is the absolute leader in sales of food and consumer of Spain. The growth of these companies has helped to accumulate a huge market power and to impose its law on the rest of the supply chain, from the once powerful food industry until, of course, the least organized farmers or marketing cooperatives .
In my view, the large retailers has been clear that the way to bring consumers into their stores was to offer a basket cheap food being the lion's share of it. And they have put into use their skills to achieve this goal, pressuring suppliers to the limit of its possibilities. This, together with other factors, are causing the decline in prices.
The bad news is that we do not see any change for the better for food producers outside the very fact that the world population is increasing and therefore so will demand. If Almería chooses to be a provider of low prices, sooner or later be wiped off the map by supply from countries with structural costs and lower production. We must walk in other directions, using the power that gives us one of the largest producers of fruits and vegetables in the world, demonstrating the value our values \u200b\u200band knowledge and exploiting the ignorance of those who want to enter the markets.
I know it's very easy to say, but serve as a comfort that we have been doing well in the past 30 years, and others who have been in the same predicament in which we now find ourselves, like the Netherlands in 90, were able to reinvent, adapt and survive.
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