Food prices could jump 10% next year, Dutch supermarkets warn

Groceries will become up to 10 percent more expensive next year, supermarket association CBL warned in an urgent letter to the Cabinet. According to the trade association, the price increases are partly due to government measures.

Measures including the sugar tax, the truck toll, energy levies, increases in the minimum wage and the youth minimum wage, and various additions on top of European legislation are increasing costs without providing any added value for the customer in the store, the CBL said. The trade organization, therefore, “emphatically” urges the Cabinet not to implement the proposed policy measures in the near future.

The CBL also pointed out that consumer confidence is low and customers are shopping more price-consciously. According to the CBL, supermarkets in the border region are particularly affected by this because taxes are regulated differently in neighboring countries. “We are increasingly noticing that Dutch people in the border regions are buying groceries and other products like fuel in Germany or Belgium.”

The supermarkets fear that the measures on top of the price increases caused by global developments and the war in the Middle East will make groceries even more unaffordable.

Supermarkets are particularly affected by increased fuel prices and rising energy costs, CBL said. Because supermarkets are the end of the value chain, these increases are often not yet immediately visible to the consumer. “Depending on the product, that price increase can take four to twelve months.”