Call on the government: make fruit and vegetables VAT-free!
You pay 25 cents for a pink cake and 65 cents for an apple. Sounds logical? No, we don’t think so either. Yet it’s been the case for years that unhealthy food is much cheaper than healthy products. According to food watchdog Foodwatch, things are going terribly wrong in supermarkets and something needs to be changed NOW. Such as making fruit and vegetables VAT-free. But that’s not so easy.
It is, of course, completely absurd. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing, yet we still aren’t being given any incentive to eat more healthily. And by incentive, I mean financially attractive. With inflation, it seems to be becoming downright unaffordable to stock up on fruit and vegetables. Add to that the fact that the prices of fruit and vegetables have already risen by 20%.
What is a vegetable and what is fruit?
The idea of removing VAT from fruit and vegetables has been around for some time. But, as it turns out, that’s not easy. The government has already struggled with the question: what exactly is a vegetable and what is fruit? This mainly concerns products that don’t fit so neatly into one of the two categories. You know that a head of lettuce is a vegetable, but, so the thinking goes: what about apple sauce, which often also contains sugar?
At the FavorFlav editorial office, it seems crystal clear to us: remove all VAT from fruit and vegetables sold loose as such. Nothing in tins or processed, simply: fruit & vegetables that you can buy loose. That would already take you a long way and avoid all sorts of discussions just to avoid making a decision. Yes, even fruit that contains a lot of sugar, because fruit sugar is obviously much better than fruit from a cake.
Dirk van den Broek
Supermarket Dirk van den Broek has been calling for VAT to be abolished, or at least reduced, for much longer. In 2021, they launched the #detijdisrijp campaign, calling for VAT to be reduced from 9% to 6%. Unfortunately, it is still 9%. But it is certainly encouraging that a supermarket is committed to such a measure.
VAT still charged on fruit and vegetables
Foodwatch has been running a petition for some time to have VAT removed from fruit and vegetables as soon as possible. Honestly: things aren’t looking particularly rosy at the moment. The research report by SEO Economic Research (from March 2023) showed that the measure is legally complicated—the apple sauce issue—and that it would ultimately deliver little health benefit. SEO says that it would be better, for example, to impose an additional tax on unhealthy food instead. For now, the government seems to be postponing a decision on abolishing VAT on fruit and vegetables.
In April, Amsterdam alderwoman Marjolein Moorman wondered on Op1 why it all had to be so complicated. If VAT needs to go up—as with oat milk—it can all be done very easily and quickly, but if it needs to go down, suddenly it can’t? We will continue to hope for positive change and, in the meantime, sign Foodwatch’s petition.
Because a doughnut being cheaper than a banana—that’s surely nothing short of absurd?
Also read:
- Meat tax: bizarre nannying or life-saving?
- Why we’re fans of Lidl’s new ‘Don’t waste me’ fruit and vegetable bag
- Nobody knows what this code on fruit and vegetables means
Source: Foodwatch, NU.nl and Op1, image: Albert Heijn
