The price of strawberries has doubled in ten years

By: Trademagazin Date: 2025. 06. 26. 10:56

While in 2015, a kilogram of domestically grown strawberries in Germany cost 3.94 euros, by 2024 this price had risen to 6.65 euros, Die Welt reported. This represents an increase of 68.8 percent, and according to the latest data, the price increase will continue in 2025, so we can definitely talk about an increase in price of over 70 percent in the past 11 years. At the same time, German buyers are still willing to pay a premium for domestically grown fruit, despite the fact that cheaper Spanish or Greek imports are also abundantly available on the market, writes G7.

What is behind the increase in price?

The increase in the price of strawberries is influenced by several factors: on the one hand, the growing area and the number of producers have decreased, and on the other hand, production costs have increased – especially the price of labor. For example, in Germany, wages account for 50-60 percent of the total cost of strawberry production.

However, due to the weakening of the forint, the difference between Hungarian and German prices in euros has almost disappeared, even though domestic inflation has been much faster. At the end of May 2015, the euro exchange rate was 309 forints, so the price of German strawberries was equivalent to 1,217 forints, while the price of domestic or imported strawberries on Hungarian markets typically fluctuated around 600 forints. By the end of May 2024, the euro exchange rate had increased to 389 forints, so that the 6.65 euro German strawberries cost 2,586 forints per kilo, while in Hungary the price had also doubled, to around 1,200 forints.

Threefold price increase on Hungarian markets

According to data from the agricultural portal Magro.hu, if we consider 2015 as the starting year, strawberries in Hungary will have increased in price by 100 percent by 2024 and by 133 percent by 2025. In fact, the biggest jump is also visible for 2023: a 216 percent increase in price was registered then – this means that the consumer price has more than tripled.

The domestic price increase was therefore not only faster than in Germany, but the domestic production difficulties were also more strongly reflected in the pricing, and the weakening of the forint also played a significant role in the price catch-up. Although domestic strawberries are still cheaper than the German premium product, the difference is now more technical than real – especially when viewed from the customer’s wallet.