Berlin
Germany’s supermarkets are in a price war. In focus: products that have become more expensive due to inflation since the beginning of the war.
The year 2022 will go down in the history books as the year of inflation. Above all, the Ukraine war has ensured that the cost of living has skyrocketed in the past 12 months. Everyday ones were particularly badly affected Groceries such as coffee, milk and butter. For all three staple foods, the price climbed in the double-digit percentage range. Relief for the crisis-hit consumers finally seems to be in sight. While world market prices have been falling since autumn of last year, the price drop is now also affecting consumers. Aldi, Kaufland and Norma lowered their prices first, followed shortly afterwards by the competition.
As Aldi announced in a press release, “ground Coffee and whole beans from Aldi’s own brands Moreno, Markus Kaffee, Amaroy and Tizio have now been permanently reduced in price by up to 20 percent in all more than 4,000 branches in Germany”. Customers therefore save around one euro for a 500 gram pack. Kaufland pressed the price for half a kilo of the “Jacob’s Krönung” brand from EUR 7.99 to EUR 6.99 Rewe, Edeka, Lidl, Penny and Netto announced that they would follow suit.
After inflation: Supermarkets & discounters cut prices on coffee and dairy products
Had before supermarkets reacted to the drop in prices for dairy products. Here, too, Aldi took on the pioneering role and last week reduced the purchase price for its own brand butter from 1.99 to 1.59 euros. A price reduction of 40 cents or 21 percent.
As the “Lebensmittel Zeitung” researched, milk is also becoming cheaper. Aldi Süd now charged 1.35 euros for organic whole milk instead of 1.45 euros, and organic hay milk, animal welfare milk and low-fat organic milk now cost 10 cents less. It will also be cheaper for them discounters. The first to follow was Norma, who also lowered the price of various dairy products by 10 cents. The organic oat milk now even costs 24 cents less and is available for 95 cents.
Because the producer costs for dairy farmers came down from their all-time high in the summer and the energy-intensive processing is cheaper again, the butter price also falls. The private label products are available from Aldi, Kaufland and Lidl for EUR 1.59 instead of EUR 1.99.
World market prices are falling: the trend should remain sustainable in 2023
According to the Dairy Industry Association (MIV), a break in the trend is not to be expected. According to the “Westfälischer Anzeiger”, MIV President Peter Stahl expects the development to continue throughout the year. The reason for this, in addition to the reduced demand, is the production surplus, with which the industry reacted to the record price of 60 cents per kilo of whey in winter 2022. Because more and more Germans are in favor of plant-based milk substitutes cow milk do without, experts predict the same development for yoghurt and cheese.
Before that, the prices for coffee, milk and butter were on the rise. By March 2022 at the latest, they exploded consumer prices dramatic. Last year, the statistical office of the European Union recorded an increase of 19.4 percent for coffee and almost 40 percent for butter. In 2015, consumers in Germany paid 226 percent less money than in December 2022.
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