First Lidl, then Aldi and Penny: discount supermarkets in Germany are reducing the prices of their meat-free products and expanding their ranges, in a bid to attract more customers. 

Lidl discounts vegan products by up to 36 percent

Lidl has adjusted the price of almost its entire range of vegan products to bring them in line with the cost of comparable meat-based products, Tagesschau reports. This means that some individual items have been discounted by as much as 36 percent. 

Christoph Graf, purchasing manager at Lidl, told Tagesschau that the supermarket wanted to make the price of meat-based and plant-based food broadly the same, so customers have more choice. “This way we can generate new customers who want to try something new,” he said. He added that the supermarket’s target market was so-called flexitarians - people who do not completely abstain from meat, but try to reduce their consumption. 

After Lidl made the change, it wasn’t long before competitors Aldi and Penny followed suit. Aldi has reduced prices for its “My Vay” own-brand plant-based products, with individual savings of up to 20 percent. Penny then followed suit with its own “Food for Future” products. 

43 percent of people in Germany describes themselves as flexitarians

According to Karsten Kilian, brand strategist and lecturer at the Würzburg-Schweinfurt University of Technology in Bavaria, flexitarians now make up 43 percent of consumers in Germany, and he believes the cheaper prices will help tempt more customers to try plant-based products. Indeed, the Federal Government’s Nutrition Report found that 73 percent of people who bought plant-based products in the last year did so out of curiosity. 

Tobias Schalyo, Corporate Responsibility Manager at the animal rights organisation PETA Germany, said that the price adjustment was an “exemplary rethink to enable many people to shop vegan and animal-friendly in times of high food prices.”

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