In the first nine months of 2024, retailer LLC Maxima Latvija received requests from 74 suppliers regarding the raising of prices for several hundred products in multiple product categories, as reported by the company’s representatives.
Price increase requests were received for eggs, fresh meat, dairy and fish products, coffee, chocolate, as well as canned foods and other products.
Requests to increase prices were received by Maxima Latvija from local and foreign suppliers. They requested price increases from a couple of per cent up to 40%, the company notes.
Representatives of Maxima Latvija say that such volume of requests for supplier price increases is one of the historically largest. Various reasons for price increases are mentioned, such as an increase in the price of raw materials, an increase in the minimum wage, an increase in excise duties on fuel and packaging taxes, as well as other factors.
One of the biggest price increase request was received from suppliers of coffee and chocolate products.
The reason for this is because there is a high price for cocoa and coffee on the global market. The prices of cocoa raw materials have more than doubled since the beginning of the year, driven by increasing demand and reduced availability of raw materials around the world, while the increase in the prices of coffee raw materials has been mostly influenced by adverse weather conditions, poor harvests, as well as a decrease in the number of coffee farms and growers, the representatives of the retailer explain.
The Director of the Procurement Department of “Maxima Latvija” indicates that all price increase requests received are evaluated and reviewed to ensure that the price increase is justified.
As previously reported, in 2023, “Maxima Latvija” operated with a turnover of EUR 1.073 billion per year, which is 10.1% more than the year before, while the company’s profit increased by 84.9% – to EUR 56.529 million.