AMA published first Food Transparency Report

“With the Food Transparency Report, we enable consumers to use 22 products to see the purchase prices at which food retailers buy and whether falling purchase prices actually reach them,” said Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig (ÖVP) in a broadcast on Wednesday. Totschnig presented the 10-page report to the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. The transparency report is part of the “package of measures against inflation” by the turquoise-green federal government in mid-May and is intended to make the food value chain more transparent. The German Federal Competition Authority (BWB) has recently become involved in the sharp increase in food prices.

The purchase prices reported by retailers to the AMA recently averaged EUR 1.53 for butter (250 grams), EUR 0.65 for cheese (100 grams), EUR 2.89 for chicken fillet (300 grams), and 0 flour (1,000 grams). .86 euros and sugar (1,000 grams) 1.25 euros. For comparison: the weekly retailer purchase prices in calendar week 25 for butter fell by 21 percent compared to the same week last year, and a stable price level was recorded for chicken fillets, according to the transparency report.

The report is published monthly at https://www.ama.at/marktinformation/preistransparenz/aktueller-bericht. According to Totschnig, an evaluation of the food transparency report is planned for autumn.

Economics Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) also announced a food price calculator for staple foods in supermarkets and online retailers in mid-May. How exactly a food price transparency database should be designed is controversial among competition experts.

Furthermore, the BWB started a large-scale investigation last autumn because of the price developments in the food industry. The authority intends to publish the results at the end of October. The competition authorities examine whether there are competitive problems in certain product areas that lead to higher prices and where the price increases have gone.