As regional food prices, including those for strawberries and other local produce, continue to rise, the President of the Social Association VdK, Verena Bentele, is calling for an increase in the citizen’s allowance and a reduction in the value-added tax on staple foods.
Bentele, speaking to the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”, emphasized the need for the monthly regulations to be recalculated to reflect current price developments, stating, “The costs for nutrition in the monthly regulations must be calculated so that one can be fed healthily and sufficiently.”
She also suggested that a reduction in the value-added tax on staple foods like fruit and vegetables could help make a small luxury, such as a fresh pound of strawberries as a dessert, possible for families once again.
According to the Agricultural Market Information Society (AMI), the average price for a kilogram of German strawberries across all sales outlets stood at 5.31 euros at the beginning of June 2024, compared to 5.87 euros in the same week last year, a price increase of over ten percent within a year. Over the past decade, the price has risen by more than 50 percent. The reduced value-added tax rate on staple foods currently stands at seven percent.