The cost of celebrating New Year's Eve at home has at least doubled compared to last year

Celebrating New Year's Eve at home used to be a preferred activity due to its low cost and high entertainment value.

In fact, referencing the "pajamas-slippers-television" trio, the saying "This time we are celebrating New Year's Eve at home in PTT style" had become a household phrase.

However, with food inflation becoming chronic, the cost of celebrating at home has been rising for the past few years.

As of December 26, even if you put together your New Year's basket with featured products from budget supermarkets, you are spending at least twice as much compared to last year.

When we compare the catalogs of this year and last year, you are paying twice as much in 2023 for a few items you might buy to celebrate the New Year.

Even if you choose more affordable markets, if you were to buy cheese, nuts, chips, fruit juice, olives, yogurt to make appetizers, ground meat for meatballs, or chocolate sauce for dessert, you are paying 745.65 TL for a basket that would have cost 366.45 TL last year.

And this basket we listed is not large enough to sustain a family. It does not even include all the ingredients needed to make appetizers or meatballs.

Therefore, when you do a more detailed shopping trip at another market, it is very likely that you will exceed one thousand TL.

The new minimum wage, which will be effective as of 2024, has been announced as 17 thousand TL net for a worker.

Hacer Foggo, a human rights defender who works on poverty policies, states regarding the rising kitchen expenses: "It is not just New Year's Eve anymore; even holidays are no longer holidays."

Foggo, who conducts interviews in low-income households, emphasizes that there are families who cannot afford a fruit juice and a cake for their children's birthdays or special occasions like New Year's Eve, saying, "Waiting for New Year's Eve is no longer an excitement. Of course, a few neighbors or friends will push their limits to get together and have fun."

ACCORDING TO DISK, FOOD INFLATION FOR LOW-INCOME GROUPS IS 106 PERCENT

November inflation in the food and non-alcoholic beverages category was 67 percent.

Although this is lower than the record-breaking figure of 102.55 percent exactly one year ago, we are still talking about high food inflation.

Turkey has the highest food inflation among OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

In the report published at the beginning of this month by DISK-AR, the research unit of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DISK), food inflation for low-income households was calculated at 106 percent.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION COSTS HAVE BEEN RISING FOR 49 MONTHS

İrfan Donat, agriculture editor for the Bloomberg HT economy channel, points out that production costs have been rising for 49 months according to the Turkish Statistical Institute's (TÜİK) agricultural input price index.

Emphasizing that it is impossible for producer or consumer prices to fall while costs are rising, Donat says this situation is changing consumer habits.

According to Donat, demand for red meat, milk, and dairy products has decreased the most due to misguided livestock policies.

"DEMAND FOR NUTS HAS BEEN LOW FOR A LONG TIME"

Speaking with producers from different sectors, Donat reports that demand for products like nuts and desserts has dropped significantly, specifically regarding the New Year's table:

"The nut sector already says that demand has been low for a long time, especially for products like hazelnuts and pistachios... In the lower income group, roasted chickpeas, peanuts, and sunflower seeds are preferred the most.

"The dessert sector also mentions a decline in demand, especially baklava makers. When you try to eat a decent baklava, it costs at least 800 TL per kilogram. Looking at it from this perspective, meat is almost relatively cheap."

"THEY GENERALLY CONSUME BREAD, PASTA, AND SOUP"

In interviews she conducted in several neighborhoods in İzmir, Hacer Foggo was told by families that they could not pack lunches for their children and sometimes could not send them to school for this reason.

Foggo says, "They state that they cannot access milk and dairy products and generally consume bread, pasta, and soup. There are women who express that they used to consume rice last year but can no longer afford rice either. Again, there are children who skip meals at some grocery stores with bread filled with oil and tomatoes for 10 TL."

According to the November results of the TÜRK-İŞ research, kitchen inflation increased by an annual average of 86.42%.

The total income that must enter a household for all other basic expenses along with food, i.e., the poverty line, was announced as 45,686 TL.

According to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), the average monthly gross wage per person in 2022 was 11,143 TL in total.

"POVERTY IS NO LONGER JUST A PROBLEM OF THE BACK NEIGHBORHOODS"

Butchers and sales outlets with meat counters that agriculture writer İrfan Donat spoke to say that there is a decrease in demand for ground meat and cubed meat, but sales of high-quality cuts like lamb chops and entrecote have not changed.

Stating that "there is no change in the consumption habits of the upper-income group, and there is even an increase in their consumption," Donat believes this is an indicator that the gap between the poor and the rich is widening violently.

Donat expects food inflation to continue rising in 2024 due to the lack of a planned production strategy in agriculture, the importation of raw materials, and the inability of supply to meet demand.

"There is a market that has moved away from rationality and where prices have spiraled out of control. No one can predict what is cheap or expensive," says Donat, adding that the way to fight food inflation is not to declare war on price tags.

The health problems awaiting children growing up in homes where products like meat and meat products, milk and dairy products, vegetables, and fruits do not enter are another major issue.

According to Hacer Foggo, poverty is no longer just a problem of the back neighborhoods:

"Poverty is now in the homes of retirees who cannot go to the market, those working in public institutions, office workers, farmers who cannot cultivate their fields, and students who have to drop out of university."

News Source: 12punto