26.10.2023 18:35 | Monitoring
At the beginning of September, Prime Minister Petr Fiala promised that, after an agreement with farmers, food producers and retail chains, they would finally begin to lower the prices of food, the price of which has risen disproportionately in the last two years. However, data from recent months show that food prices continue to rise slightly. Retail chains are particularly to blame, which, according to statistics, sell food with a huge margin. For example, grocers sell a kilogram of edamame for 87 CZK, while it is available in stores for 198 CZK. This is also pointed out by MP Margita Balaštíková (ANO), according to whom it is necessary to shed light on the practices of traders and especially large multinational chains.
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Description: Milk in a chain store
Food prices in Czech supermarkets have risen sharply in the last two years, and although food prices have already started to drop in the last few months, people do not notice any significant reductions in stores, and Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) states that the pace of price decline is too slow. “Food prices must be lower,” the Prime Minister said at the beginning of September after Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborný (KDU-ČSL) held talks with representatives of the eight largest retail chains and representatives of the Trade and Tourism Association.
According to Fiala, the government then found a common language with farmers, food producers and chains. “We have been assured that food prices will continue to fall and that the specific measure that the government has taken, which we have in the recovery package, and that is that we have moved food to a reduced VAT, will have a positive effect. We have been assured that this will have a concrete impact on food prices, on what people will buy food for in stores,” Fiala said.
As the server ParlamentníListy.cz informs, the situation has not improved even in two months, and while the required price reductions have taken place on the part of farmers, food prices continue to rise slightly in stores. According to the data of the Czech Statistical Office, farmers reduced the price of their products year-on-year in September by up to 13.4 percent. Nevertheless, food prices for consumers rose by six percent year-on-year in September.
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And what about the prices of the most basic foods? According to statistics, the differences between the prices of agricultural producers, industrial producers and finally consumer prices including VAT that we see in stores are often more than noticeable.
Processors sell boneless back beef for 188 crowns, while in the store people pay less than 269 crowns per kilo. Processors sold boneless pork leg in September for less than a hundred per kilo, but in stores you paid over 133 crowns for it. Farmers sold chickens for 30.39 per kilo, after processing the frozen ones cost more than 55 crowns, and in the store the price tag was more than 71 crowns per kilo of whole chicken.
The prices of milk are also interesting, farmers sell a liter for 9.91 CZK, and after processing semi-skimmed milk, producers sell it to shops for 15.39. However, customers were waiting in stores for an average of CZK 22.62. Producers sold butter for 136.39 CZK, consumers paid 154.31. What about edamame? Better not even ask. Producers charge 87 crowns for a kilo of edamame, while you pay less than 198 crowns for it in the store. This is five crowns more than in the previous month.
This is also noticed by MP Margita Balaštíková, who shared an article with a list of food prices on her Facebook profile. “The prime minister and the minister of agriculture promised a significant reduction in food prices. What is the reality? Milk is sold with a markup of roughly 6%, Eidam cheese 127%, beef back 43%!!!” writes Balaštíková.
In a series of posts, she points out that traders have always been behind the high prices, and wonders, for example, that the main lobbyist for foreign supermarkets is Tomáš Prouza, who is also an adviser to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
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author: Jakub Makarovič
2023-10-26 16:43:01
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