It has not escaped anyone: the price of living has risen sharply in recent months. In addition to the cost related to the energy sector, prices in supermarkets have literally exploded. And that is not likely to get better in the coming months. As retail expert Silvie Vanhout (Gondola Academy) points out to our colleagues at Het Laatste Nieuws. “The negotiations will be the most difficult ever”she notes, referring to future negotiations on annual price agreements. “Everything becomes more expensive. The cocoa, the milk, but also the glass of the jar of spread and the cardboard in which all the jars are packed.”
In all, Belgians have seen an average inflation of 5% in the various supermarkets according to the research firm Daltix. “So far, no supermarket has wanted to be the first to raise prices sharply, when inflation has never been so high and price hikes have been going on since the spring. Suppliers have also noticed”judges the specialist. “To give an example: to make chocolate spread, you need cocoa and milk, among other things, and these raw materials have become more expensive. But the price of the glass of the jar, the plastic of the lid and the cardboard of packaging has also increased Add to that the transport and wages of the workers and you will understand that the producer of chocolate spread will have no choice but to pass on these increases Supermarkets always want to buy the cheapest possible in order to be able to resell their products cheaper than the competition, but this is no longer tenable.”
And the first affected by the crisis are obviously the consumers who bear the full brunt of this reality. Worse, Belgium may even no longer find certain products at this pace. As explained by Jorg Snoeck from RetailDetail, again for our Flemish colleagues. “Empty supermarket shelves will only increase – from detergent to chocolate to toilet paper”he says. “Currently it is usually because a product is really out of stock, because a producer needs grain from Ukraine, for example. But from next year it will also be because that the supermarket and the supplier will not have agreed on the purchase price“, he warns.