Transporters go up prices. Supermarket? Impact arrives “from here to 1 month”

Agoods carriers are already increasing prices to survive the rise in fuel prices and distribution warns that pressure should be felt on supermarket shelves within a month. 

“All carriers are unanimous in saying that the only way they have to survive is to increase the price of transport“, said the spokesman of the National Association of Road Freight Transporters of Goods (ANTRAM), André Matias de Almeida, in statements to CNN Portugal. He added that “increase in transport price is a reality“. 

André Matias de Almeida explains that “everything is deregulated because there is no predictability and the rise is brutal“, giving as an example a large national and international transport company that bought a million litres of fuel for a million euros before the start of the Middle East war. Now, “went on to pay, for the same million litres, two million euros“.

Impact will soon reach the supermarkets

Fuel shortages will eventually also put pressure on supermarket prices. The impact should not be immediate, but it is possible to start to feel within a month when new contracts are concluded and new supplies are made.

“ Our transport suppliers are naturally suffering from this fuel price growth,” Gonçalo Lobo Xavier, director-general of the Portuguese Association of Distribution Companies (APED), also in statements to the same television channel.

Now, according to the person responsible, the worsening goes through the whole value chain, since it begins in agricultural production, it goes through agroindustry, logistics and transportation, then to distribution companies.”

“This impact will only feel a month from now, appreciably“, anticipates Gonçalo Lobo Xavier, adding that “our suppliers will also have to pass on this cost increase“. 

In the meantime... Government says it prepares new support

The government is preparing new support for freight, fire, social and taxi transport to compensate for the impact of fuel rising, announced the Minister for Environment and EnergyMaria da Graça Carvalho.

“ A set of support is now being prepared which we have already had and which ended on 30 June and which we will resume.” for those sectors, said Maria da Graça Carvalho, adding that the proposal should be taken to the Council of Ministers.

The minister spoke to journalists at the inauguration of the Nãm Fungi Factory, a production unit that turns coffee lees into mushrooms, the Grupo Nabeiro-Delta Cafés and Nãm, which took place on Monday in Odivelas, Lisbon.

The governor explained that the measures should follow rules similar to those applied earlier and may take the form of a vehicle support or a discount or subsidy for each litre of fuel consumed, for example in the case of taxis.

According to Maria da Graça Carvalho, the government maintains as a policy “to help sectors that need the most and not to make general aid”, also pointing to the use of additional VAT revenue to reduce the Tax on Petroleum and Energy Products (ISP).

Asked about the possibility of imposing a ceiling on fuel prices, Maria da Graça Carvalho considered that this is an “exceptional and last resort measure” because it may disturb the functioning of the market.