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The discount chains (Aldi, Lidl et al) in Germany have over 50% of the grocery market and they pretty much set the market price for commodities.

Milk, for example.

A litre of low fat (1.5%) milk retails for €0.48 at Aldi. (3.5% organic goes for €0.89.)

Farmers get….?

€0.27 a litre with 4.3% fat content.

They reckon it costs €0.40 to produce and the only reason they’re not starving or being forced to sell the Mercedes is because they’re subsidised like crazy.

(Not enough, of course…)

Some milk factories and co-ops, though, have come up with a smart idea:

Instead of wailing and moaning (OK, they’re doing THAT too….) they’ve created a premium brand called “Bauernmilch” (“Milk from the farmyard”) with evocative packaging, retro typeface and a good price point (€0.99) that they’re marketing through selected supermarkets, with a big chunk of the revenue going straight to the farmers.

I’ll buy it.

I mean, I wouldn’t want Mercedes to go down the gurgler just because the farmers can’t afford to buy their cars, now would I…?

14 Apr This entry was published on 14 April, 2010 at 11:00. It’s filed under Commerce, Mainz and tagged Bauernmilch. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.