The development of price differences between animal and plant-based products in Dutch supermarkets since 2022

The Dutch consumer looking to save money is better off filling their shopping basket with plant-based rather than animal based products. 

Two years ago, a plant-based shopping basket was still more expensive than a basket filled with comparable animal food products. Now consumers can save up to €9,66 by replacing animal with plant-based products. Meat substitutes are mostly more affordable than meat products.

Questionmark sees several developments at the root of this:

• Inflation hits animal products more heavily than plant-based products.
• Supermarkets are expanding their own-brand meat substitute product range.
• Jumbo has implemented a price parity policy to ensure the price of meat substitutes is always equal to or lower than that of meat products. 

Jumbo is the first and only supermarket to have implemented this policy in the Netherlands. A promising development we hope to see other supermarkets follow. Lidl and Kaufland in Germany and Lidl and BILA in Austria have announced price parity for meat and meat substitutes. Lidl Denmark started a campaign to match the prices of their own brand meat alternatives to meat products as well.

There is room for progress particularly when it comes to dairy alternatives. Dairy alternatives are frequently more expensive than their animal counterparts. Plant-based quark and yoghurt are always more expensive, whereas plant-based milk and cheese are frequently more affordable.

Read the press release here.