Exploding food prices: But a supermarket product is finally getting cheaper again
Created: 09/28/2022, 11:05 am
By: Stella Henrich
In view of skyrocketing food prices, consumers should now be happy that the price of at least one product when shopping is becoming cheaper again.
Munich - In July, organic milk was more expensive than ever at the discounters with an average price of 1.69 euros.
This led to a sharp drop in consumer demand.
The dealers are now reacting to this with a decent price reduction.
"Aldi is going ahead and the others are following suit," reports the
Lebensmittel-Zeitung
.
The discounters hope that customers will now take action if they reduce the prices for organic milk for the first time in weeks.
A liter of organic milk now costs 1.45 euros.
Low-fat milk is now available for EUR 1.35 instead of EUR 1.59, according to the industry journal.
The background to the price war is a bitter battle over purchase prices between the food trade and producers of organic milk.
For example, Schwarzwaldmilch - one of the leading providers - has increased the milk payment price for organic milk since December from 50.5 cents per kilogram net to 60.0 cents per kilogram from July.
The trade obviously passed this jump in price on to customers with sharply increased prices and "to create a buffer for further increases in purchase prices", the
Lebensmittel-Zeitung
continues.
An assumption that the president of the organic farmers' association Bioland also confirms.
I suspect they currently want to test the price limits for organic milk.
Jan Plagge, President of the Organic Farmers Association Bioland in "Welt am Sonntag" (WamS)
Food prices: Consumers are turning to alternatives
Consumers obviously did not accept this test.
A large bottler reported a drop in demand of 30 percent.
Consumers switched to conventionally produced milk.
This is counterproductive, Jan Plagge continued in the
WamS interview
.
"That's not how we can achieve the agricultural turnaround." Not only the Bioland President should be happy about the current price correction, but also dairies and organic farmers.
These dairy cows have returned to their enclosure box after their grazing.
(symbol photo) © Sylvio Dittrich/imago
The situation with fresh meat is similar to that in the organic milk sector.
According to the Federal Statistical Office
, meat had become particularly expensive
in the first five months of this year .
In May 2022, meat was 16.5 percent more expensive on average than a year earlier.
For comparison: The prices for all groceries had risen by 11.1 percent in this period.
Despite the good barbecue weather in the summer months, the demand for meat did not pick up.
As confirmed by the agricultural information service AMI.
Consumers reduced their meat consumption.
Her pain threshold had been reached.
Experiment failed, which should have been known since last year.
Grocery prices: Regional suppliers as an alternative
The discounter Aldi, as the pacesetter in the industry, is now reacting by lowering meat prices in order to make chops, sausages and steaks tasty again for customers.
Consumers who shop regionally can "save a lot on food," says someone who should know.
Regina Blasi from the farm shop in Dorfen, Bavaria.
"Sometimes it's actually cheaper than in the supermarkets."
She knows that rising costs cannot simply be passed on to customers entirely.
And idealistic as Blasi is, she adds: "Those who shop regionally and seasonally buy cheaply."
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