According to a survey, many consumers are less willing to buy more expensive sustainable products because of high inflation. Within a year, the proportion of consumers who accept higher costs for sustainable products has more than halved, according to Monitor Deloitte, the auditing firm’s management consultancy. In 2021, an average of 67 percent of those surveyed said so, now only 30 percent.
In August 2022, the company surveyed around 1,500 consumers aged 18 and over. “These figures indicate a reversal of the situation, at least for the moment,” said Thorsten Zierlein, retail specialist at Deloitte. However, the management consultants assume that this will change again when the economy improves: “But there are many indications that this development can be reversed just as quickly as soon as the economic conditions are more positive again.”
The basic attitude has changed little: for example, 50 percent said that sustainable food production is important to them. A year ago it was 53 percent. But at the same time, 41 percent said that sustainable products would either be cheaper or they would have to earn more themselves to actually buy them.
In the survey, “sustainable” meant a whole range of product properties, including environmentally friendly packaging, regional production or natural ingredients without chemical additives.
