Image: Lidl/Peter Schauwienold.
Lidl Germany has cut the prices of its own-brand vegan range so that the plant-based products now cost exactly the same as their meat and dairy equivalents.
The discount supermarket is permanently lowering prices across most of its Vemondo range, which launched in 2020 and now includes more than 100 products. The idea is simple: the plant-based option should never cost more than the animal one next to it.
That's the other half of the plan. The products are being placed right next to their animal counterparts in the regular aisles of all 3,250 German stores, so shoppers see them side by side. Lidl stocks around 650 vegan items in total, and says it is the first German food retailer to set hard targets: by 2030 plant-based sources should make up 20% of the protein it sells and alternatives 10% of its dairy range.
Christoph Graf, managing director of products at Lidl (ESM Magazine has the full announcement), said:
By adjusting the price of our Vemondo products, we would like to invite customers to try out plant-based alternatives, without price being the decisive factor.
Only if we enable our customers to make evermore conscious and sustainable purchasing decisions and fair choices can we help shape the transformation to sustainable nutrition.
Price has always been one of the biggest barriers to people trying plant-based food. A survey by the German retail association BVLH found that 43% of German consumers would buy more vegan products if they were cheaper. Lidl just took that excuse away.
There's a good reason to celebrate. Oxford University research published this summer showed that vegan diets have 75% less climate impact than high-meat diets, so cheaper plants are good news for everyone.
Germany keeps leading the way. In April we reported that German meat consumption fell to a record low of 52kg per person, and in 2020 the country's biggest sausage maker began selling more veggie than meat. In the UK, Tesco pledged to boost plant-based meat sales 300%. Back in 2017 a major supermarket rearranged its stores to nudge shoppers toward more veg. It's all part of the plant-based revolution.
Same price, better choice. Over to you, UK supermarkets.