German customers continue to shop cheaply, especially for food. Just one in ten euros of the disposable household income will be spent on food, according to the Landvolk press service. The share of food expenditures in the total consumption expenditure of households has thus been quite constant for some years, and has in fact fallen significantly in a long-term comparison. This means that in 1970, Germans had to spend nearly one-fifth of their disposable income on food and 100 years ago it was as much as 50 percent!
Currently, weather-affected higher prices for fruit and vegetables are covering how little money actually has to be spent on 'daily bread' and other foodstuffs. The onset of winter in January has weakened the supply of fruit and vegetables in Germany and in southern European producer countries and, as a result, prices have risen. One way out is to offer price-conscious customers the purchase of local fruit and vegetables that are currently in season. These include the extensive range of cabbages - from white, red and green cabbage to Brussels sprouts and also onions, leeks, beetroots and carrots. With these vegetables, customers can choose from the seasonal range of local produce. The products are, for the most part, significantly superior to peppers or tomatoes grown in greenhouses in southern Europe in terms of taste and nutritional contents such as vitamins. Apples and pears from lower Saxony are the regional everyday alternative to exotic fruits such as pineapple and papaya, which mostly have to be flown in from their country of origin in the southern hemisphere. According to data collected by the Agricultural Market Information Society in Bonn, vegetable prices rose by 23.5 percent in January 2017, compared with the same month of the previous year. With the local vegetable season in late spring and early summer, we can expect this value to be corrected downwards.
