Consumer Story

There's a curious meeting today between the German Chancellor (Merkel), the Agricultural Minister, German farming groups, grocery/food industry, and certain members of the Bundestag.

At the heart of this matter (using the Focus article as the heart of the element)....it's about the pricing situation for food across Germany, and the Farmers being peeved about the lack of respect, and dismal prices.  The Farmers are also talking about new environmental rules/regulations coming down, and the spiraling of stability for farm communities.

Simply coming up with cash to pay off the Farmers won't be enough.

The chatter about low prices for agricultural commodities in Germany?  They have a point.  If you go over to France, the Netherlands, or Poland....you will find prices in grocery operations being anywhere 10 to 25 percent higher.  Even my wife will point out the magnificent deals that you can find in various German groceries.

The current slant by the Chancellor?  Well....she's been pro-environment for the past ten years, and kinda says in various speeches that the regulations are there to public the public and general safety.  If she holds to that position?  I'm guessing some kind of fee business will have to be added, and your grocery bills will be going up a minimum of 10 to 15 percent in 2020.  Making consumers happy?  No.  It'll be a problem to explain that to the general public.

Here's the curious part of the story.....four grocery operations control around 85-percent of grocery sales in the nation: Edeka, Lidl, Rewe , and Aldi.

They have an inside chair to this meeting and where things are going. 

If prices start to go harshly up?  This is one of those topics that would get a group of consumers into harsh criticism over the stores, and the government.  If you see an average weekly situation go up by 10 Euro (each week)....it's going to be talked about and marginally criticized.  If this were going to be 20 Euro a week....it'd be a public forum situation and severe criticism upon the political figures agreeing to this.

All this long-term effort by the government to keep both salaries at a stable level and food pricing in the same range?  It works until you go and mess with the system, and make more regulations.