​The high prices of the past two years have affected our purchasing power and food consumption has steadily declined. According to data sent by the National Institute of Statistics, the consumption of jam and jam suffered the biggest declines in Muntenia and Moldova, while the consumption of chocolate and eggs fell the most in Bucharest.

Ionuc Popescu was proud that a few years ago there was no food that he could not afford if he wanted to. Growing up, he recalls, my mom was on a food budget, and she usually didn’t eat everything, and the pantry was always full. And in my grandfather’s house in Maramures, sausages smoked well in the attic of the house, and the pot was full of all the good things of the earth. But now I seem to have fallen from heaven to hell. 8 lei for a kilogram of onions? What country do we live in? , he rightly wonders.

Now Ionuts and his wife live in Muntenia together with their 3 children. For six months now, he has been relying only on Ionuts’s income, since his wife lost her job. Earnings eaten away by inflation cut their weekly grocery list in half.

Ionuts switched from beef to chicken and avoids restaurants altogether. “I haven’t felt this financially vulnerable since the 2009 crisis,” he says.

Hotnews reviewed food consumption data.

Compared to the first quarter of 2021, when the price jump began, consumption has been flat this spring. Above you can see the variation in consumption by region between the first quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2021.