Discounters reach out: Sausage and ham in the store are much more expensive – but not for corporations

Discounters have repeatedly raised the prices for sausage and ham enormously.

In purchasing, however, the meat has not become all that expensive for the corporations.

Kassel – Why are ham and sausages so expensive right now?

At Aldi, Penny, Kaufland and other discounters, packaged meat products are costing more and more.

But this is not due to the prices in purchasing.

The corporations cash in.

This is shown by a study by the management consultancy Ebner Stolz, which is available to the

.

Consumer prices are skyrocketing, even though the discounters themselves aren't paying that much more for the products.

Sausage and ham manufacturers have not increased their prices since March 2022 – but supermarkets have

In the past two years, packaged sausages have risen 24 percent in price, the report says.

In March 2022, prices jumped by a double-digit percentage, and by the end of the year the discounters had increased four times on average.

The sausage and ham manufacturers have meanwhile refrained from significant price increases since March.

The additional income goes into the pockets of Lidl, Netto and Co. The figures from the Federal Statistical Office show that the slaughter price for pigs has not risen sharply since March.

"There is only one winner of the price jumps: the food retail trade," study author Klaus-Martin Fischer told

.

He had insight into the annual reports of eleven large sausage producers.

"The price increases in retail are significantly higher than those of the upstream stages in the value chain - and significantly so."

Why is meat getting more and more expensive in the supermarket?

Corporations pass on additional costs to customers

Aldi Süd, Lidl and Kaufland do not want to comment on the pricing.

A study by the Institute for Economic Research (ifo) suggests that this is the case.

Retailers have passed on the increased costs caused by the energy crisis to customers.

For supermarkets, not only purchasing but also ongoing operations have become more expensive, as reported by hna.de.

After all, the leading economic institutes in Germany are now expecting the price hikes to come to an end.

The dealers have made up their deficits and supply bottlenecks that have arisen since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict have been closed.

“Even in retail, fewer companies are now looking to raise prices.

However, the price expectations there are still significantly higher than in other economic sectors," says Ifo economics chief Timo Wollmershäuser in a press release on the price study.

(moe)