2023-05-17 13:44:25
Own brands are considered the cheap alternative for food, currently almost two thirds of the range consists of own brands, said ÖVP official Carina Reiter. However, farmer representatives see this as a disadvantage for the farmers, because the retail chains would enforce lower purchase prices for their own brands, criticized the managing director of the Association of Austrian Milk Processors (VÖM), Johann Költringer, at a press conference on Wednesday.
Own brands have been introduced by retailers “so that they can work out a better position in the food chain,” said Költringer. However, quality products from local farmers are often sold under the grocer’s own brand. According to the VÖM managing director, this might lead to a strengthening of the private labels, a weakening of the manufacturer brands and an “inclined level” in pricing. Because the own brands would make the quality goods of the farmers interchangeable – even with foreign products.
The trade would weaken the local farmers through the own brands, said Reiter, Chair of the Young Farmers Expert Committee and ÖVP Member of the National Council at the joint press conference. Any additional costs would be passed on to suppliers and manufacturers: “Of course it is also clear that retailers do not want to be left with the additional costs that arise.”
The employee-oriented Momentum Institute also identifies a high level of market concentration and above all criticizes the lack of price competition. A price comparison of Rewe and Spar’s own brands Clever and S-Budget showed that almost two-thirds of the approximately 250 comparable products from the two brands cost exactly the same. If you also take into account price differences of up to 5 percent, around 70 percent of the products would have similar or the same prices. In a broadcast on Wednesday, Momentum does not accuse the companies of secret price fixing, but “it is enough if the few corporations have no undisclosed interest in a fight for customers by means of low prices”.
Only 60 percent of the butter and cheese products from private labels in the food trade can be proven that the milk comes from Austria, as a study by the Land Economics Association and young farmers in Upper Austria, Carinthia and Tyrol shows. In around a quarter of the almost 1,000 products examined, the origin of the milk was not at all recognizable.
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