Price Transparency Along the Food Value Chain

The study published on 23 April 2024 by Anna Renhart, Josef Baumgartner, Atanas Pekanov and Franz Sinabell on behalf of the Vienna Chamber of Labour and the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions compiles information sources that provide an insight into the value chain of agricultural goods and food.

The situation in Austria is examined in great detail and it is established that there is very good information on the prices of agricultural goods and also the prices at which households buy goods. However, the information is often only publicly accessible in edited form as an index. The prices at which goods are traded at various levels of the value chain are only known for a few products and are not very representative of consumer behaviour in Austria.

In most EU countries, the situation is no better than in Austria. In France, on the other hand, a differentiated monitoring system has long been established. This approach is presented in detail. Finally, based on the research, a concept is proposed that should contribute to improving transparency in the value chain. Different approaches are developed, depending on whether companies or prices of goods are involved. The proposed solutions are based on existing instruments in order to minimise the effort required to improve price transparency.