Expert warns of price shock for food in Germany
Created: 02/22/2022, 11:19 am
By: Ines Baur
Experts expect a price shock for consumers in the coming months.
For a lot of people, household money can get tight.
(Iconic image) © Ute Grabowsky/photothek.net via www.imago-images.de
Rising energy prices and an estimated inflation rate of up to seven percent.
Experts fear a massive increase in food prices.
Munich - The price of natural gas is rising across Europe.
This in turn is noticeable in the production of chemical fertilizers.
Nitrogen fertilizer is too expensive for many farmers.
According to calculations by the German Farmers' Association (DBV), price increases for fertilizer and fuel mean that production costs in arable farming rise by up to 30 percent.
Not every farmer wants or can keep up.
Food: Up to seven percent - food prices are driving inflation
“Fertilizer prices are higher than ever.
There are farmers who no longer want to afford the fertilizer and are therefore consciously accepting the loss of yield,” says DBV General Secretary Udo Hemmerling in an interview with
Welt am Sonntag
.
This entails production losses, yield losses in agriculture and ultimately rising prices for consumers.
Sooner or later, this will be felt by the customers of grocers and discounters.
"The price increases in the supermarkets are only just beginning," says Christian Janze, partner at the consulting firm EY and agribusiness officer.
"Producer prices are rising sharply, which ultimately has an impact on consumer prices, especially after the next harvest."
Food: "Price increases in the coming months"
"According to our surveys, two-thirds of food manufacturers are planning further price increases in the coming months," said Timo Wollmershäuser, head of economic activity at the Munich ifo Institute, in an interview with
Welt am Sonntag
.
That's more than ever before in reunified Germany.
"Thus, food prices are likely to become a key inflation driver this year."
In their forecasts, the economic researchers have increased the inflation rate for 2022 in Germany to four percent.
The institute expects food prices to increase by seven percent compared to the previous year.