Essential food basket rises again to €254.22 after brief pause
The cost of filling a weekly shopping basket in Portugal resumed its climb in the final week of September, according to the consumer association Deco Proteste. Between 23 and 30 September, the price of a standard set of 63 essential food items rose by 11 cents, reaching €254.22. The increase ends a one-week reprieve that had seen prices fall by €1.86.
For a household in Portugal, the new total represents a meaningful sum — roughly equivalent to a week's groceries for a small family, or 12.39 euros more than at the start of 2026, when the same products cost 5.12% less. The gap from four years ago is starker still: the basket now costs €66.52 more than it did in January 2022, a difference of 35.44%.
What drove prices this week
Three items stood out in the latest weekly analysis by Deco Proteste. Horse mackerel (carapau) jumped 16% to reach €5.88 per kilogram, the sharpest percentage increase of the week. High-fibre breakfast cereals climbed 10% to €4.58, while cooked chickpeas rose 9% to €2.13.
The basket tracked by the association covers a broad range of staples: meat, frozen foods, fruit and vegetables, dairy, grocery items and fish. It includes products such as turkey, chicken, horse mackerel, hake, onions, potatoes, carrots, bananas, apples, oranges, rice, spaghetti, sugar, ham, milk, cheese and butter.
Longer-term pressure on key staples
The weekly fluctuations mask more sustained price growth across several Portuguese staples. Compared with the same period last year, horse mackerel is now 43% more expensive, while salt cod (bacalhau graúdo) costs 27% more, at €20.54 per kilogram. Carolina rice has risen 24% over the year, reaching €1.79 per kilogram.
Since Deco Proteste began tracking these prices in January 2022, some items have more than doubled. Boiling beef is up 119% to €12.75 per kilogram. Salt cod has climbed 94% to €20.54 per kilogram. Heart cabbage (couve-coração) is 91% more expensive, at €1.90.
The association links these increases to a combination of pressures: the war in Ukraine disrupted grain supplies to Europe; prolonged drought reduced yields; the pandemic left the agrifood sector fragile; and instability in the Middle East has affected fuel and energy costs. In Portugal, food inflation reached an average of 13% in 2022.
Government response and political debate
The Portuguese government has introduced targeted measures to cushion the impact on families. In September, it announced a subsidy for agricultural diesel aimed at protecting farmers from rising fuel costs and, secondarily, easing pressure on food prices. A wider support package worth 38 million euros covers sectors dependent on fuel, including freight transport and public buses.
Portuguese pensioners will receive an extraordinary supplement, and income tax brackets have been adjusted to reduce the burden on households up to the sixth bracket.
Political parties disagree on whether fiscal measures go far enough. The Socialist Party (PS) has proposed a temporary return to "zero VAT" on selected food items. The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) argues for direct price regulation on food, gas and fuel. The Left Bloc (BE) is calling for caps on profit margins for essential goods.
Manuel Castro Almeida, the Minister of the Economy and Territorial Cohesion, described inflation as "a factor that is going wrong" but stressed that the government's measures aim not to destabilise public accounts while remaining ready to intervene where needed.
Portugal's inflation rate accelerated to 3.6% in September year-on-year, its highest since September 2023. Globally, food prices rose 5.8% in September compared with a year earlier, driven by supply disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and the Black Sea, alongside climate impacts affecting harvests.
