According to the monthly newsletter of the Farmer's Observatory, vegetable prices increased by 14.3% between December 2013 and December 2014. Meanwhile, fruit prices increased by 2.3%; thus, the fruit and vegetable basket as a whole increased by 8.5%.
The vegetables that increased the most were potatoes, onions and squash, followed by spinach (27.2%), red pepper (22.5%) and squash (18.3%). The vegetables that had price decreases were the sweet potatoes (11.5%), tomato (7.1%), chard (6.3%), lettuce (2.8%) and zucchini (2.3%).
The strawberry and the peach had the highest increases in fruit with 19.1% and 16.1% respectively, while banana prices increased by 6.3% and orange prices by 0.3%. Meanwhile, apple prices fell by 21.7% and melon prices by 15.1%.
In addition, the Mercado Modelo's total revenues increased by 14.9%. Compared with the previous year there was an increase of over 7%, explained by an increase in the volumes of both vegetables (9.7%) and fruits (3.7%).
The main increases in revenue for vegetables were recorded in zucchini, sweet potato, pumpkin, spinach, onion, spinach and carrots. The main increases in fruit were in melon, orange and strawberry.
The only significant decreases were observed in lettuce and peach.
"Other products such as watermelon, corn, eggplant, cucumber, plums, etc. also increased revenues in the month of December," the report said.
Source: 180.com.uy