Especially for coffee

The next hefty food price hike is coming

(Bild: AP/Christof Stache)

The prices of the cheapest foods have been shooting up continuously for months. Now consumers are having to dig deeper into their wallets again. The 40 cheapest products from seven supermarkets and discount stores in the food and cleaning products category rose by a whopping eight percent in September. The most expensive product: coffee beans.

High rents, inflation at its highest level since March 2025 - where is this going? Many Austrians are groaning under the financial burden, which seems to be getting heavier and heavier.

Everyday goods such as coffee, milk, pasta and vinegar are making the shopping basket ever lighter, but more expensive. 

Only 13 products cheaper
While 13 out of 40 products became cheaper by up to almost 17 percent (shower gel) in a year-on-year comparison in September, 22 out of 40 products showed drastic price increases of up to 57.4 percent (especially coffee beans).

(Bild: AP/Christof Stache)

This is how much more food costs

• Coffee beans: up 57 percent
• Table vinegar: up 41 percent
• Orange juice: up 36 percent
• Milk chocolate: up 23 percent
• Mixed bread rolls: up 12 percent
• Whole milk: plus 8 percent
• Penne pasta: plus 7 percent
• Tomatoes: up 7 percent

Five products remained at the same price level as last year (such as tea butter, tomato puree and flour), according to the AK Price Monitor.

Shopping basket six euros more expensive than in 2024
In a nutshell: a shopping basket containing 40 of the cheapest groceries and a few cleaning products will cost a record price of almost 82 euros in September 2025. Last year it was just under 76 euros. That is an increase of 8.2 percent. In comparison: in 2021, a basket of goods cost 51 euros - so it was 60 percent cheaper than it is now.

Stable prices for liquid detergents
With the exception of liquid detergents, everything became more expensive. A few examples: Orange juice up 157 percent, coffee beans up 151 percent, penne pasta up 103 percent and flour up 88 percent. Supermarkets are even slightly more expensive than discount stores (up 7.8% on average).

Company bankruptcies, such as at the Upper Austrian fiber manufacturer Lenzing or the food retailer Unimarkt, are causing additional uncertainty. A total of 7000 companies could go bankrupt this year.