Making traditional French coq au vin keeps getting more expensive, underscoring how government efforts to pressure the food industry to bring prices down are yet to show significant results.
Bloomberg’s custom index, which calculates how much households need to spend on ingredients to cook the poultry dish, rose 12.4% year-on-year in May. This was driven by a 46% surge in the cost of carrots and a 24% jump for onions, with both increases accelerating from April.
The pace of the overall year-on-year increase moderated from 14.9% in April. Still, the monthly gauge — based on data from the national statistics office and the Ministry of Agriculture and Nutrition — showed the total cost of the dish reached a fresh record of €19.4 ($20.8).
The price of chicken, which is the most expensive ingredient in the recipe, rose 12.8%. Wine accounted for the smallest increase, up 8.1%. Both eased from April.
Headline inflation in France slowed to its lowest rate in a year last month, at 6%. However, the pace of food price increases remained stubbornly high at 14.3%.
The government has been negotiating with industrial food companies to urge them to pass on declining costs to consumers. This comes on top of a campaign by supermarkets to offer promotions on some staples. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said some food prices will fall as soon as next month.
In neighboring Spain, Bloomberg’s Paella index rose 14% in May from a year earlier, while overall headline inflation in the country fell below 3% for the first time in almost two years.
