Comparing the phase prices of hungarian, german, polish and slovakian dairy products

Aliczki, Katalin – Mándi Nagy, Dániel – Nyárs, Levente – Papp, Gergely

Keywords: milk, dairy products, producer and consumer prices

In the period between 2006 and 2009, the consumer price of milk was the highest in Hungary. Differences in consumer prices are caused by many factors: VAT rates, price policy of retail chains, the processing companies’ prices, and, finally, the bulk price paid to producers. The rate of VAT is essentially a macro-economic factor, a function of the economic policy of the country concerned. In the old Member States, relationships with the retail chains and market culture have evolved over decades. Players in the Eastern European food market were, however, taken unprepared by the new capital intensive retail operators; as a result, suppliers and producers shifted to a more subordinated position in the value chain than they had been used to. The high processing prices of dairy products seen in Hungary stem primarily from the unfavourable macro-economic factors and secondly from the competitive disadvantages of the industry.

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