The food price memorandum has had a positive impact on reducing prices in the basic goods basket, yet this is not reflected in the overall food inflation rate, retail representatives told the LETA news agency.
Ilze Priedīte, Marketing Director and Board Member of the retailer “top!”, told LETA that food price dynamics are driven by various external and internal factors – global prices of raw materials and energy, production and logistics costs, wage increases, as well as seasonal fluctuations. While prices for some product groups have decreased, increases have been observed in others.
As an example, Priedīte noted that this year’s local fruit and vegetable harvest has been significantly affected by weather conditions – part of the crops froze, some grew poorly due to a lack of warmth, and elsewhere the harvest was lost to flooding. As a result, prices in this segment have not decreased but rather increased. The company also observes that prices for dairy and meat products from suppliers are generally continuing to rise.
“The food price memorandum has provided a positive impetus for reducing and stabilising prices in the basic goods basket, but this is more evident at the level of specific products rather than in the overall food inflation indicator,” Priedīte stressed.
At the same time, she noted that,
given the declared state of emergency in the grain sector, a harvest shortfall is expected,
and grain prices on exchanges are already rising. Price increases are also expected in related sectors – dairy and meat farming.
“top!” continues to work with suppliers to ensure the best possible prices for customers, especially in everyday goods categories. In addition to daily promotions, the retailer has introduced long-term low prices, a low-price basket, and the weekly campaign “3 Days, 3 Products at Especially Low Prices.”
“Although we try to ensure the lowest offers across all categories, a long-term price drop can only be achieved if stability is maintained both in production costs and in external markets,” Priedīte emphasised.
Laila Vārtukapteine, Board Member of SIA “Elvi Latvija”, told LETA that food prices are always a variable factor, influenced by seasonality as well as rising raw material and other costs. This summer, compared to last year, food prices have been most affected by poor weather conditions impacting not only Latvia but also other countries. This year’s harvest is maturing more slowly, producers are struggling to ensure the right quality, and therefore these food products are priced higher than last year, which also explains the relatively high annual inflation. However,
there has been no significant price increase in June or July compared to previous months.
Vārtukapteine said that the essence and content of the food price memorandum is primarily aimed at ensuring the availability of essential food products, but inflation statistics analyse all products, so the memorandum’s scope cannot influence overall inflation.
Food prices have been relatively stable in recent months, she noted, adding that only a few suppliers have reported price increases in the last few months. At the same time, there is a noticeable reduction in the range of discounted goods, meaning that more items in stores must be bought at regular prices. Food prices on store shelves are economically justified, formed by many components. Artificially lowering the price of individual goods cannot lead to a general drop in food prices.
To fulfil the commitments set out in the memorandum, the sale of low-price basket products in the “Elvi” chain is essentially subsidised by other product prices, as the mark-up on these products often does not cover their selling costs, Vārtukapteine pointed out.
“The memorandum is a tripartite commitment and, contrary to public claims,
producers have been slow or unwilling to respond to the call to join in creating lower food prices,
while the state, which has a very effective tool – reducing VAT on essential goods – is not considering such an option at all. Instead, there is talk only of imposing a cap on mark-ups, which means that lost revenue would have to be compensated from the sale of other products, or, in the case of smaller shops, business would have to be closed, resulting in the loss of much-needed jobs in the regions and a decline in economic activity,” said Vārtukapteine.
Dana Hasana, Head of Corporate Communications at SIA “Lidl Latvija”, told LETA that the Central Statistical Bureau’s data are general, and in July there were price increases in some product categories, while in others – such as fish or sugar – prices fell. Therefore, Hasana said she “would not want to generalise that prices are rising without going into detail.”
She stressed that since entering the market, “Lidl” has influenced prices and, in a way, triggered “price wars” and intensified competition, which the company considers to be the best price regulator. At the same time,
“Lidl” is able to offer lower base prices for the daily food basket, based on the company’s private label products.
Hasana also noted that “within the framework of the signed letter of intent or memorandum, retailers have pledged to find resources to lower prices for the daily food basket, and each of us is also a customer who wants this.”
However, to achieve an even more significant reduction in food prices, all parties would need to be involved – both producers and the state, with its own mechanisms.
Inese Pētersone, Category Department Director at SIA “Rimi Latvia”, told LETA that the current food inflation rates in Latvia are influenced by both global events and the local economic context.
“Rimi” regularly receives requests from suppliers to increase prices.
For example, at the beginning of this year, dairy processing companies proposed raising prices by an average of 11.3%. “Rimi” has tried to keep this sharp increase within reasonable limits, which ultimately meant a 4–6% price rise for customers.
In the current economic situation, the memorandum, together with active retailer efforts, has made it possible to offer customers basic products at favourable prices, even though there are objective reasons to review prices in the context of overall food inflation.
Globally this year, the main drivers of food inflation have been beef, eggs, and chocolate. There has been a slight price increase for vegetables and fruit, while pork and olive oil have seen smaller increases, and at times even slight price drops. Importantly, for product groups with the highest inflation, customers can easily find substitutes – for example, replacing beef with cheaper pork. The exception is eggs, where there has been a noticeable global shortage and a rise in purchase prices, which Baltic suppliers have also responded to, Pētersone said.
Liene Dupate-Ugule, Head of Communications at SIA “Maxima Latvija”, told LETA that
the July rise in inflation is explained by price increases for certain products
caused by external factors – the ongoing impact of avian flu worldwide, which is reflected in higher chicken and egg prices.
The prolonged drought has also affected coffee harvests in Brazil and other major coffee-exporting countries, resulting in higher prices in this category. However, there have been price drops for several products, such as buckwheat, flour, oil, bananas, avocados, as well as fish and other staples of balanced meals, giving people the opportunity to save by consciously choosing lower-priced options.
Dupate-Ugule noted that “Maxima Latvija” primarily focuses on ensuring low prices for quality products in all its stores across Latvia. The first month’s results of the “low-price basket” initiative show that the average price reduction for these products was 25% compared to the standard price of a medium basket previously. At the same time, demand for low-price basket products in “Maxima” stores increased by an average of 70% over the month.
As reported earlier, on the 27th of May this year a memorandum on reducing food prices was signed. The memorandum provides for the introduction of a low-price food basket, a price comparison tool, and an increase in the share of locally sourced products in stores. The low-price food basket is to ensure that in ten product categories there is at least one item at the lowest price in its category,
with products being regularly rotated within each category.
Also reported earlier, consumer prices in Latvia this July rose by 0.1% compared to June, while year-on-year – July 2025 compared to July 2024 – they increased by 3.8%, the same inflation rate as the previous month, according to data from the Central Statistical Bureau. The 12-month average consumer price level in July rose by 2.9% compared to the previous 12 months.
Month-on-month, prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages increased by 0.3%. The largest upward impact in this group came from fresh fruit (+3.0%) and potatoes (+9.9%). Coffee rose in price by 1.7%. Following the end of promotions, prices increased for bread (+1.2%), dried, salted, and smoked meat (+1.2%), soft drinks (+6.9%), and poultry (+0.8%). Fresh vegetables fell in price by 3.4%. Mainly due to promotions, prices decreased for fresh or chilled fish (-13.3%), chocolate (-1.9%), confectionery (-0.9%), cottage cheese (-2.4%), and sweets (-3.7%).
Year-on-year, prices in the food and non-alcoholic beverages group rose by 6.9%. The largest upward impact came from coffee (+34.2%), poultry (+17.9%), fresh fruit (+13.2%), chocolate (+29.2%), eggs (+19.3%), butter (+19.8%), dried, salted, or smoked meat (+4.5%). Prices also increased for dairy products (+6.9%), milk (+7.1%), confectionery (+4.4%), vegetable oil (+19.9%), beef (+28.9%), fruit and vegetable juices (+7.1%), cheese and cottage cheese (+1.9%), and ice cream (+6.1%). Potatoes (-9.3%), sugar (-18.7%), fresh or chilled fish (-13.4%), and flour and other cereals (-3.1%) became cheaper.
Company Data
The company “Iepirkumu grupa”, representing the “top!” store chain and providing a unified procurement system and joint marketing activities for the network, had a turnover of 13.975 million euros in 2024 – 5% more than in 2023 – while losses amounted to 265,077 euros compared to a profit the year before.
“Elvi Latvija”, which operates as a franchisor, had a turnover of 5.868 million euros last year, up 7.1% year-on-year, while its profit doubled to 231,887 euros.
“Lidl Latvija” posted turnover of 470.605 million euros in the last financial year (1 March 2023 – 29 February 2024), up 6.4% from the previous year, while losses grew 4.1 times to €14.816 million due to continued investment in expanding the retail chain.
“Rimi Latvia” had turnover of 1.126 billion euros last year, up 4.6% year-on-year, with profit increasing by 31% to 38.115 million euros. In June 2025, Sweden’s “ICA Gruppen” completed the sale of “Rimi Baltic” to Denmark’s “Salling Group” in a deal worth 1.3 billion euros.
“Maxima Latvija” had turnover of 1.102 billion euros last year, up 2.6% from the previous year, while profit fell by 10.2% to 50.775 million euros.
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