SPD plans to stabilise price of basic foods in Germany

The SPD has announced a plan to stabilise the consumer cost of basic foods produced in Germany, such as bread, milk, certain vegetables and meats.

SPD announces Deutschland Korb plans

According to an SPD policy paper seen by ARD, half of Germany’s coalition government would like to introduce a new policy to stabilise the cost of basic consumer goods produced in Germany. 

With the “Deutschland Korb” (Germany basket) policy, certain products, namely basic foods like milk, bread, vegetables and meat products, but also washing powder, soap and other household goods, would be sold at stable prices.

German supermarkets and shops which are part of the Schwarze Gruppe conglomerate would be able to decide whether to take part in the Deutschland Korb scheme. Supermarket chains in the conglomerate include Lidl, REWE, Penny, Edeka and Netto.

A similar policy was introduced in Greece in late 2025, when the government and supermarket chains came to an agreement that supermarkets would reduce the cost of more than 2.000 products by an average of 8 percent.

So far, certain supermarket organisations haven’t been so supportive. “From experience, when politics starts influencing price mechanisms, it always leads to unwanted outcomes, such as price increases,” head of the Federal Association of the German Retail Grocery Trade (BVLH), Philipp Hennerkes, told the dpa.

Germany also wants to tackle shrinkflation

According to figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in Germany the cost of certain foods has increased by more than 35 percent since 2020. Alongside the Deutschland Korb, the SPD wants to do more to tackle rising consumer prices.

The party would like to better enforce label requirements to better regulate shrinkflation - when companies reduce packaging sizes but don't reduce prices accordingly -, review the EU Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices and establish a new government-run price monitoring agency.

The agency would be tasked with making pricing decisions more transparent “from the field to the supermarket shelf,” according to a report from Tagesschau. Similar institutions already exist in other EU-member states.