Food Council - A comprehensive overview of the most popular food prices

The Food Council (FC), which met for its second meeting at the Ministry of Agriculture, this time analysed in detail all the factors influencing the price changes of the three most popular foodstuffs - drinking milk, buckwheat groats and meat products - in Lithuania and in the neighbouring countries.

„At the first MT meeting, we agreed to identify up to 10 most popular food products. This time, we gave the Agricultural Data Centre the task of presenting trends and a comparative analysis of three indicators that influence food production. The market indicators were taken into account to study how the prices of these products have changed since February in Lithuania, Poland and Germany," said Dr Ignas Hofmanas, the Chairman of the MT and the Minister of Agriculture.

Eglė Malonytė, Head of the Competition Policy Group of the Competition Council, who attended the meeting, drew the attention of the MT members to the competition rules, mentioning specific risks that should be avoided in the Food Council. „General trends and price levels must be discussed, and sensitive information or specific data on companies' costs must not be exchanged between them“, – stressed the representative of the Competition Council.

Dr. Irma Jankauskiene, representative of the State Enterprise Agricultural Data Centre, after giving a general overview of the food products market, explained what macroeconomic and sector-specific indicators were taken into account when analysing the prices of products in March.  

She said that retail prices of many dairy products, in particular fermented cheeses, rose in March in Lithuania's major supermarket chains. Cheese prices have risen not only in Lithuania but also in Latvia and Germany. In contrast to Lithuania, the price of drinking milk in Latvia fell.

It has been observed that the price of organic raw milk of natural fat from Lithuanian dairy producers is very little different from conventional milk. However, the domestic selling price of organic drinking milk in February 2025 was almost 20% higher than that of conventional drinking milk.

The analysis of prices in the cereals sector points out that retail prices of cereal products in the major Lithuanian supermarket chains did not experience any significant fluctuations in the beginning of 2025, and showed little change. Prices for dark bread and baton increased slightly, while prices for premium wheat flour and buckwheat groats decreased.

The Food Council was also interested in price developments for meat – beef and pork. In March this year, compared to February, the price of beef ham (boneless) increased by 4.33% in the Lithuanian major supermarket chains compared to February, but was 5.57% cheaper than in Poland. In contrast, the price of pork loin (boneless) in Lithuania increased by 1.02% over the period analysed and was more expensive than in Poland.

The meeting noted that the retail price structure for buckwheat groats and milk is dominated by traders, while for meat, especially pork, the raw material producer has the largest share.

MT members, representing their part of the food chain, made various suggestions and insights. As each product is not only very different, but also the share of the chain in the price varies, opinions were very different.

„I would have liked to hear more specific reasons identified. Perhaps in the future traders could invest in energy, which could make products cheaper in the long term, as it is human resources and energy that are the biggest cost drivers for traders,    Minister Hofman commented.

The Ministry of Agriculture, through the establishment of the Food Council this year, aims to analyse in detail all the factors influencing price changes. The emphasis is on food chain analysis to see whether there is a reasonable distribution of price throughout the food chain. Members of the MT – representatives of policy makers, producers, processors, traders, academia and consumer organisations.