Groceries not cheaper across the border, supermarkets say

On average, groceries in the Netherlands are not much more expensive than in Belgium and Germany. With that message, supermarket chains and food producers are going to parliament this week to discuss inflation and price differences with neighboring countries, which many parties are making an issue of.

On Thursday, one of the topics discussed was the price of a jar of apple sauce, which is over twice as expensive at Albert Heijn in the Netherlands as in Belgium. It is a popular example in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, of how prices of the same product differ per country. But the companies qualify that image in their position papers.

The Netherlands is a “country of special offers,” is the defense. The prices on the shelf are only “a snapshot,” said Nestlé (known for brands like KitKat, Nespresso, and Maggi). Unilever (parent company of Calvé, Unox, and Knorr, among others) even states that groceries are cheaper than across the border, on average.

Albert Heijn also points to the many discount campaigns and also boasts about its “very low” profit margins. Of every euro that the customer spends in the store, the company claims to keep only 4 cents. The rest is spent on purchasing, wages, transport, and store rent, among other things.

Jumbo also claims to keep only a fraction of what customers pay in the store. Where the company can save costs, it tries to let customers benefit from that, it says. Lidl points to higher energy and packaging costs as the cause of possible price differences with other countries.

HAK, the maker of the aforementioned jar of apple sauce, says that as a relatively small player, it can’t do anything about price differences. “The small manufacturer has a different position than the multinational,” said the Noord-Brabant-based producer of canned vegetables and fruit. The company also stressed that it largely purchases from Dutch growers. And: “The Netherlands is not a cheap production country.”