Prices in German supermarket reflect climate cost

German discount supermarket Penny has drawn mixed reactions from critics after temporarily increasing prices of some products to incorporate hidden climate costs.

The trial price rise last week was part of a campaign that sought to raise awareness of the environmental cost of producing food, though the move has brought accusations of greenwashing, which implies activities that make people believe a company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is.

A range of nine products, primarily dairy and meat, were priced based on what experts from two universities deemed was their true cost in all 2,150 branches of the Penny chain.

The weeklong experiment was aimed at reflecting the products' impact on soil, climate, water use and health, The Guardian reported.

The supermarket's price for wiener sausages rose from $3.50 to $6.60, mozzarella increased by 74 percent to $1.70, and fruit yogurt saw a 31-percent rise, going from $1.30 to $1.71.

Supported by academics from the Nuremberg Institute of Technology and the University of Greifswald in Germany, the awareness promotion week was launched after consumer research found that current supermarket price tags did not reflect the true environmental or long-term health costs of food production and retailing.

"We need to put out the uncomfortable message that the prices of our foodstuffs, which are accrued along the supply chain, in no way reflect the environmental on-costs," Penny's chief operating officer Stefan Goergens told Reuters.

The company said researchers will study consumer reactions to the price changes, and it plans to donate any extra income from the trial to a sustainable farming project.

In commentary pieces, German and Austrian media said the initiative was a good start, but would not affect underlying problems, reported the news website Eurotopics.

Instead of punishing customers, "it's the production processes that need to change, and ideally the relations of production", said Frankfurter Rundschau, a German newspaper.

"This is a political matter: Regulation and price-capping are what is called for. Then a lot more people would be able to afford more environmentally friendly products."

Kleine Zeitung, an Austrian newspaper, said food prices in general are far too low and the environmental damage caused by production is not factored in.

"The important thing is to make changes higher up the food chain, for example by strengthening regional markets by reducing transport routes," it said.

The German Farmers' Association dismissed the campaign as a "greenwashing project", and consumer protection watchdog Foodwatch described it as a public relations stunt, reported The Daily Telegraph in Britain.