The food is still expensive: 'I have a five-year-old who loves butter'

Food prices continue to rise: 'I have a five-year-old who loves butter'

Food prices increased by 4.7% in December and have not decreased yet.

Butter is one of the items that have increased the most with a rise of 16.2% from December 2023 to December 2024. (Photo: © Amalie Holst Jensen, Dr Østjylland)

By

Amalie Holst Jensen ( [email protected] ) 54 min. ago

We have talked about it many times. The prices of food items in the refrigerated section. Even Mette Frederiksen mentioned it in her New Year's speech. For the past few years, prices have risen and risen ( https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/penge/prisen-i-koeledisken-stiger-markant-saa-meget-er-de-enkelte-varer-steget-eller-faldet ).

At Kvickly in Odder, there is something that has caught people's attention. For many customers, it has been necessary to change their shopping habits.

- I have to have it, I have to have it. I try to be organic, as I usually do, but I have switched to buying a lot of discount items. Simply because I need the money, says Anne Sophie Graversen.

And especially one item has become expensive to put in the cart, when she is out shopping for the family.

- I have a five-year-old who loves butter. At one point, it was up to 37.95 kr for 200 grams of organic butter. I switched to conventional for a while, because it was just too expensive, says Anne Sophie Graversen.

Butter is one of the items that have increased the most with a rise of 16.2% from December 2023 to December 2024. (Photo: © Amalie Holst Jensen, Dr Østjylland)

She is not the only one who has taken other measures to save a little extra money. Vibeke Lisbeth Jørgensen often thinks about it but is usually forced to go back to shopping as before. However, she drives all the way from Aarhus to Odder because milk is much cheaper, it only costs half as much, she says.

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No sight of cheaper food

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If you had hoped that 2025 would be the year when it becomes cheaper to fill the cart in the local supermarket, there is bad news.

At least if one asks Ann Lehmann Erichsen, who is a consumer economist at Sydbank.

- It's just the way it is, that when I look back, food prices rarely fall. There are small increases all the way, and that's what I also expect the next few months to look like, says Ann Lehmann Erichsen.

She is backed up by Jeppe Juul Borre, who is chief economist at Arbejdernes Landsbank.

- We have seen in recent years that food prices have only risen. And it is not in the cards that it will change in the near future, he says.

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A price drop does not come from the stores

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In the meantime, customers must still find other ways to shop.

- I don't plan according to the offers, but I look for items with short expiration dates. Both from a food waste perspective, but also to get a good deal, says Rasmus Madsen.

It is especially oil and Italian delicacies that Rasmus Madsen has noticed have become more expensive. (Photo: © Amalie Holst Jensen, DR ØStjylland)

It is not at the daily stores themselves that a price drop is expected in the near future, thinks Arne Sørensen, director of Kvickly Odder. Daily stores do not have the means to lower prices unless the suppliers go first. It is therefore, according to him, a place in the supply chain where price increases should come from.

- I hope, like everyone else, that prices will fall, but it's not the daily stores that make the money. I think we can demand that Danish suppliers lower their prices. We are forced to take what is necessary for us to be able to make ends meet, he says.

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