450 items more expensive
Aldi is raising even more prices – other chains are following suit
Aldi and other grocers are raising prices
© Rolf Vennenbernd / DPA
Groceries are getting more expensive: discounter Aldi has increased prices for the second week in a row. The competition also passes higher costs on to customers. Farmers are warning of further price explosions for consumers.
Shopping in the supermarket or discounter is becoming more expensive for consumers. Industry giant Aldi had already increased prices across the board last week. There were more price increases this week. And the biggest competitors are following suit and also increasing their prices.
According to research by the Lebensmittelzeitung, another 20 to 30 items were more expensive at Aldi this week, including variants, 50 products were affected. In the first wave, 160 items had already become more expensive. Aldi has now increased the price of more than 180 products from the range within a week – including all variants, around 450 items have become more expensive.
Aldi leads the price wave
Products are affected across the range from own brands to branded products. Sometimes it’s just a matter of a few cents, but sometimes it’s also about price increases in the double-digit percentage range. However, the phenomenon is not limited to Aldi, but has affected the entire industry. Lidl and Kaufland also quickly adjusted their prices, the Lebensmittelzeitung reports. Rewe has made hundreds of products more expensive in the past few days, and Edeka and Netto have also become more expensive.
As a result of the Corona crisis and climate-related crop failures, there had already been a trend towards more expensive food in the past few months. Added to this is the shock of the Ukraine war. With the corona pandemic and the war in Ukraine, one is confronted with “two century events” that “have a massive impact on global supply chains,” a spokesman for Aldi Nord told Wirtschaftswoche.
First Corona, now also war
“With the war in Ukraine and the increasing isolation of Russia, the supply chains are coming under further pressure,” explains Aldi. “At the same time, energy prices continue to rise massively, which means that our suppliers’ costs for production and logistics continue to skyrocket.” For grocers, this means that purchase prices in almost all product groups are rising sharply, said the Aldi spokesman. Therefore, the sales prices in the shops would also have to be adjusted.
Farmers are also warning of sometimes drastic price increases. The Vice President of the Schleswig-Holstein Farmers’ Association, Klaus-Peter Lucht, told the “Bild” that bread could soon cost significantly more because wheat prices had doubled compared to the previous year. Ukraine is a global wheat exporter. Individual products could even disappear from some shelves temporarily, sunflower oil is particularly scarce at the moment.
According to “Lebensmittelzeitung”, the entire industry is in turmoil. While manufacturers and dealers usually meet once a year to negotiate the delivery conditions, such long-term agreements are currently hardly possible. Even existing contracts are increasingly being replaced by temporary agreements because of the current difficulties. Large suppliers and medium-sized companies have announced that they want to withdraw from current contracts and renegotiate conditions.
Supermarket customers must therefore be prepared for further price increases. The President of the German Farmers’ Association, Joachim Rukwied, said on Friday that consumers are facing “food price jumps of an unprecedented magnitude” in the coming months.
Swell: food newspaper / business week / image / DPA