Germany is looking at a very cold and difficult winter this year.
Inflation in Germany is at its highest rate in more than a quarter of a century. Germany’s harmonised inflation rate compared to other European countries is at 11.6%.
Germany is planning for emergency cash deliveries to its citizens in case of winter power cuts, giving an example of how seriously authorities are taking the threat of outages caused by soaring energy costs.
And now Germany is also looking at a serious meat shortage in four to six months due to government regulations. Currently, 90% of the German population eats meat. The costs in the coming months will hit them hard, as will energy costs and the soaring inflation rate in the country.
The Financial Trend reported:
Die Welt, citing the German Meat Industry Association (VDF), reported this week that within the next four to six months Germany will face a meat shortage, and prices will skyrocket.
Hubert Kelliger, a VDF board member and head of group sales at meat seller Westfleisch said, “In four, five, six months we will have gaps on the shelves.”
Pork is expected to experience the worst shortages. The issues in meat supply are due to Berlin insisting on reducing the numbers of livestock by 50% to reduce global warming emissions. Experts are warning this policy will result in mass shutdown of meat-producing companies, and that will produce a 40% rise in the price of meat.
Analysts also warn that the reduction in meat production will also reduce the supply of natural fertilizer, which will cause follow-on shortages in vegetable yields, and concomitant rises in the cost of producing and supplying vegetables, due to the high costs of artificial fertilizers, which are dependent on natural gas as a feedstock for the production of the ammonia which is converted into urea. Both situations will worsen an already untenable food crisis and inflation-driven cost of living crisis in Germany.
Meat industry experts note that although Germany has seen a surge in veganism and vegetarianism over the last few years, over 90% of the population still eats meat, and these costs will hit them hard.
Currently the biggest meat importer in Europe, Germany has already been relying more and more on meat imports instead of domestic production, with the percentages of meat supplied by imports growing aggressively these last few months.