Supermarkets Groceries will get even more expensive - at Aldi as of Monday
Berlin · Consumers in Germany are feeling the effects of the Ukraine war not only in terms of gasoline and heating. Food is also becoming significantly more expensive. There is no end in sight to the price increases.
According to the retail industry, food prices in Germany are likely to continue to rise significantly - and this will already be felt at Aldi starting on Monday.
Even before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, prices in the retail sector had risen "across the entire range of products" by a good five percent, reported Josef Sanktjohanser, President of the German Retail Association (HDE), to the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. He said that it was the result of increased energy costs. "The second wave of price increases is coming, and it will certainly be in double digits," Sanktjohanser said.
The first retail chains have already begun to raise prices, he said. "We will be able to see this on the prices at all the supermarkets in the near future." There will be "no more downward movement in prices for the time being," Sanktjohanser added. Recently, retail chains such as Aldi, Edeka and Globus had already announced price increases.
On Monday, Aldi will raise prices: Meat, cold cuts and butter will then be "significantly more expensive", as Aldi North communications manager Florian Scholbeck told dpa in Essen. The reason for this, he said, is the higher prices that Aldi has to pay its suppliers. "Since the start of the Ukraine war, there have been increases in purchasing prices that we have not experienced before." This is also due to the fact that feed, fertilizer and energy have become more expensive. This, in turn, is being felt by farmers in their livestock farming and by the meat processing industry. The "Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung" had reported earlier on the price increases.
According to that newspaper, Aldi Süd also feels the need to raise prices. The increases will vary depending on the product.
Prices have already been increased for about 180 items
Aldi had already raised prices for around 160 items two weeks ago, and 20 more items met the same fate a week later. Competitors followed suit. Due to the situation on the world markets, "rising sales prices throughout the industry [...] could not always be avoided," Edeka announced last week. According to a recently published survey by the Ifo Institute, almost all companies in Germany's food retail sector are planning price increases.
Farmers' President Joachim Rukwied said that food supplies are foreseeably secure for one year. "But beyond that time horizon, it is difficult to make a forecast."
The leading associations of trade and the agricultural sector exchange views on the consequences of the Ukraine war at the level of the Central Coordination Trade - Agriculture (ZKHL). ZKHL Managing Director Hermann-Josef Nienhoff said that the current wave of price increases has not yet reached consumers. The ZKHL was established after persistent protests from the agricultural sector against the pricing policy of the retail groups.
(Orig. text: dpa / Translation: Carol Kloeppel)
