The basic food basket has increased 47% in five years in Rio Grande do Sul, putting pressure on small businesses.

The survey, conducted every July at the same supermarket , reveals significant changes in consumer spending. The report tracked the prices of 13 basic food items . The total price increased from R$119.99 in 2021 to R$176.53 in 2025, a 47.12% increase.

Evolution of the total value of the basic food basket:

• 2021 – R$ 119.99
• 2022 – R$ 155.24
• 2023 – R$ 150.86
• 2024 – R$ 159.04
• 2025 – R$ 176.53

According to economist Josias Bento, food and beverage inflation was one of the main factors.

"In these five years, we've had very high volatility in inflation , both in food and beverages, which in the last 12 months, for example, were the villains of our inflation, as well as external factors, right? The price of the dollar, we had a dollar that went from R$3.13 to R$6.10 last year, so all of this mainly moves the price of food," comments Bento.

The survey shows that coffee, butter and beef drove price increases .

• * Estimate based on the percentage variation reported.
• ** 2024 values used as a basis for comparison.

Coffee was the item with the biggest increase.

"Major coffee producers worldwide, such as Brazil and Vietnam, experienced crop failures. So, when these countries experienced crop failures, the financial market also speculated on the price of coffee, pushing the price higher than the market actually expected," explains Bento.

According to him, the normalization of supply could take six to eight months .

Since 2018, businesswoman Maia Lebedeff has been running a restaurant in Porto Alegre and faces the challenge of balancing the cost of ingredients with the price charged at the buffet:

"We have a cost, the CMV, the cost of goods sold. This is the percentage we calculate based on our revenue. The higher the cost of goods sold, the lower our revenue," explains Maia.

Over the past five years, she has had to reduce her daily supply of beef.

“We have to do a competition because we have to choose the day for red meat and then we play with pork, with chicken, but without losing quality,” he reveals.

On the other hand, rice, beans and white potatoes registered a decline .

"This good news about beans is mainly related to the bean harvest, right? There's an increasing supply of beans, which means people can consume more," says the economist.