BNNVARA – Cash Registers and Shopping Baskets in 2023

The Kassa Grocery Basket is a random sample in which 6 supermarkets are searched for the cheapest variant of 27 everyday products such as oranges, tea, potatoes and detergent. The last poll was in September 2022. Due to the huge increase in food prices, we wanted to see what the shopping basket would do a little earlier than usual.

That was not easy. On average, prices in Kassa’s shopping basket have increased by 13.21%.

That’s a lot in half a year. It means that even the cheapest products have become significantly more expensive, which is a major setback for people who are struggling to make ends meet – not only people on benefits or pensioners, but increasingly also low-income workers.

The cause of the price rises is largely due to the war in Ukraine and the enormous rise in energy prices that followed. These increased costs are passed on by every party in the food chain, from farmer, intermediary to supermarket. And at the end of that chain, the consumer pays the price.

The question asked by Kassa is whether the passing on of the costs has been done fairly. The second question is whether parties have earned disproportionately from it.

Supermarkets appear to have surrendered, and their profit margins have fallen by an average of one percent. This figure is a substantiated estimate, says economist and retail expert Laurens Sloot, because it cannot be verified on the basis of the annual figures of the six supermarkets that Kassa has investigated. Because only Jumbo and Plus publish Dutch figures. Albert Heijn, Aldi and Lidl only provide the figures of their parent group, which do not include the Netherlands separately, while Dirk does not publish any figures at all.

If we look at food producers, we see that dairy farmers in particular have done very well in the Netherlands. The price they received for milk rose by almost 50 percent to 58.69 euros per 100 kilograms of milk supplied. It is a fact that farming life is full of uncertainties, but it was precisely in the year when most people suffered a sharp decline that farmers did well.

The dairy wholesaler, FrieslandCampina, also performed very well. The group made a turnover of € 14.1 billion in 2022, an increase of 22.4%. Net profit increased by almost 70% to € 292 million. These profit figures were not necessarily achieved in the Netherlands. FrieslandCampina stated in a response that the group performed poorly in the consumer market in the Netherlands. And that they did not fully pass on the increased prices they encountered to the customer.

Government! What everyone always forgets is the role of government. Unnoticed, the government ‘earned’ billions from the crisis through the extra revenue from VAT and gas. VAT is on goods and services. There are different rates and food is 9% VAT, and alcohol, for example, is 19%. With every price increase, these VAT revenues will increase, and in 2022 it will be very much. The total VAT revenue in 2022 was then 72.7 billion. That was 5.2 billion more than budgeted.

The same happens with the proceeds from the sale of natural gas. These natural gas revenues increased by an estimated 11.4 billion in 2022. This means that the government has ‘earned’ an extra 16.6 billion from products for which consumers have to spend extra. These are the so-called windfalls.

You would say, give those windfalls back to the people who largely paid for them. Those voices are heard and the Central Bureau of Food Trade, which represents the collective interests of the Dutch supermarket sector, stated in the broadcast of Kassa in September 2022 that VAT on food should be reduced. Others believe that VAT on basic products should be reduced to zero, such as bread, flour, vegetables, fruit, cheese, potatoes, eggs and grains. This has already been introduced in Spain to moderate the high prices of food.

Meanwhile, poverty in the Netherlands is increasing as a result of the high prices. You live in poverty if you earn below the so-called poverty line. In 2023, this poverty line for a single person will be 1508 euros and next year that limit will rise to 1573 euros. Higher amounts apply to couples and families with children. If you have less to spend, then you officially live in poverty.

The group of poor in the Netherlands is growing, and currently 4.7% of the population lives in poverty. That is around 815,000 people. According to the Central Planning Bureau, this will rise to 5.8% of the population in 2024, or 995,000 people. This is actually too crazy for words for a country as rich as the Netherlands. Something needs to be done with this.

A temporary VAT reduction could be one of the support measures many of which have been introduced since 2022. Well-known support measures are the energy allowance, energy price ceiling, increase in health care allowance, increase in the child budget, income-related rent reduction, and the reduction in fuel excise duty by 17 cents. These measures are temporary and the excise duty reduction will end this summer.

The revenues from VAT on food in 2022 were 5.8 billion. If you temporarily reduce the complete VAT on food to zero, you immediately have a mountain of money to fight poverty.

You can read the reactions of the supermarkets below:

Curious about the complete shopping lists per supermarket? You can find it below!

The supermarkets are, of course, indignant about the way we fill our shopping baskets. Fortunately, we have written down our rules crystal clear. Curious about these rules? Then look no further!