How many tons of food do Austrians buy in retail stores and how much do they spend on it? The AMA (Agrarmarkt Austria) analyzes this annually. The result for 2023: The quantity remained practically the same at 1.97 million tons. Expenditures rose by 10.2 percent to 9.48 billion euros.
Price increases occurred primarily at the beginning of 2023, as AMA market research manager Micaela Schantl said. This has reduced over the course of the year. For butter, a leading indicator, prices fell by 4.7 percent in 2023 as a whole. Cheese became 14.6 percent more expensive, while the milk, yoghurt and cream group increased by 10.2 percent. Further examples: Meat and poultry rose in price by seven percent, ready meals by 12.8 percent.
Canned goods and flour were hoarded
As far as quantities are concerned, it is noticeable that products that were hoarded in times of Corona and the start of the war in Ukraine are now being used up and therefore fewer were purchased in 2023. There was a decrease of 4.5 percent for canned fruit and vegetables and a decrease of 10.6 percent for flour.
A long-term trend is the increasing proportion of promotional goods. In 20 years this has more than doubled; in 2023, 30 percent of food was bought on sale. At the top are beef and pork with a good 50 percent action share, ahead of butter with 46 percent.
General inflation was 7.8 percent in 2023. Is food now a driver of inflation? “No, other sectors contributed just as much to the inflation,” said AMA.Christina Mutenthaler-Sipek upon request when the figures were presented on Tuesday. The quantities are stable, but there are different reasons for higher prices. In particular, products that are energy-intensive to produce have increased. And for potatoes, for example (plus 23.4 percent), the effects of a weaker harvest caused by pests and thus less supply were evident.
Author
Alexander Zens
Economics editor
Alexander Zens
