Supermarket prices have gone up – and they keep rising

Feeling shocked at the checkout again? It’s not you—it’s the price of groceries. They have become more expensive over the past few months, and prices will continue to rise in the coming period.

Market research firm GfK has calculated it: during the first eight months of 2021, we had to pay more for our groceries than during the same period last year. The prices of everyday groceries rose by an average of 3.7 percent, more than inflation.

Fuel is expensive

GfK also investigated exactly what had become more expensive. The products of the largest food manufacturers saw the sharpest price increases. Unilever, for example, raised its prices for supermarkets and wholesalers by 4.1 percent, Nestlé increased its prices by 2.1 percent, and PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz, Procter & Gamble and Danone also raised their prices. The price increases are related to higher fuel prices (for transporting ingredients and products). Plastic for packaging has also become more expensive, as have raw materials such as coffee, soybeans, coconut and vanilla.

Time to negotiate

The fact that prices for supermarkets are rising does not immediately mean that these price increases will be passed on to consumers. Suppliers will negotiate prices with the supermarkets, and perhaps the supermarkets will then raise their prices as well.

Cheap cheese

Not everything has become more expensive: fresh fruit and vegetables cost roughly the same as last year, meat and fish have only become one percent more expensive, and cheese has actually become a little cheaper.

Read also:

• Shocking: Dutch people eat ridiculously few vegetables
• Research reveals what is less healthy: supermarket pizza or pizza from a chain
• Buying a spice mix at the supermarket: you’re often being ripped off

Source: Nu.nl