Supermarkets Allowed to Begin Rationing, Says Spain’s Socialist Government

A customer looks at milk cartons on the shelves of a supermarket in Madrid on March 23, 20
OSCAR DEL POZO/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The socialist government of Spain has introduced new laws allowing for the supermarkets to ration food and other items as a part of its “Response Plan” to the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine.

Amid soaring inflation, which hit nearly 10 per cent in March, the Spanish government, controlled by the leftist Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has opened up a legal loophole for supermarkets to begin rationing to customers.

Published on Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) news bulletin website of the government, an amendment was inserted to the Regulation of Retail Trade law of 1996, which previously prohibited businesses from rationing.

The new amendment reads: “Exceptionally, when there are extraordinary circumstances or force majeure that justify it, commercial establishments may temporarily suspend the prohibition… of limiting the number of items that can be purchased by each buyer.”

The government stressed that rationing must be justified, such as in order to prevent shortages, prior to limits being implemented.

Despite the worrying signal from the struggling state, the government’s Minister of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda Raquel Sánchez appealed for calm, saying: “Sometimes there are alarms guided by nervousness. That is what the plan contemplates and I think the important thing is that we make a call for responsibility, that together it is up to us to transmit a message of tranquillity to the citizenry.”

Sánchez said the supermarkets and markets should be “responsible” in how they convey information to the public to prevent panic buying.

The Spanish broadsheet Heraldo de Aragón noted that there has already been some instances of panic buying — likening it to the run on toilet paper during the early stages of the Chinese coronavirus — with consumers rushing to buy sunflower oil related products for fear of shortages. Ukraine and Russia dominate the global sunflower oil market, along with several others.

In addition to the loosening of rationing restrictions, the Spanish government committed to a €16 billion (£13.4 billion/$17.5 billion) loan and aid scheme to ameliorate the impacts of rising energy prices, with the hopes of reducing the cost of petrol by 20 cents per litre.

Spain, which was one of the hardest-hit countries economically in European during the Chinese coronavirus crisis due to the nation’s reliance on tourism, has now seen some of the highest inflation on the continent in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the country’s official statistician (INE) announced that consumer prices were up 9.8 per cent in March compared to the previous year, jumping from 7.6 per cent in February. The rate at which inflation is rising is currently the highest since 1985.

“This development is due to generalised increases in most of its components. These included increases in electricity prices, in fuels and oil prices, and in food and non-alcoholic beverages prices, higher this month than in March 2021,” the INE said.

Spain is not the only European country preparing for potential rationing, with both Italy and Germany making moves signally possible energy rationing should supplies of Russian gas be cut amid the ongoing dispute with Europe over the war in Ukraine.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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