Fewer Belgians cross border to go shopping

Due to an increased tax on sugary drinks, France has become a less attractive destination for food shopping. Cross-border grocery shopping to the Netherlands is declining even faster. On the other hand, more Belgians are now shopping in Luxembourg and Germany.

More expensive drinks

Belgians are shopping less often in French supermarkets: cross-border purchases in France have fallen by 8.7 % in the second quarter of the year. The sharpest declines were in the categories of “coffee, tea and cocoa” (- 22 %), “milk, cheese and eggs” (- 13.6 %) and “water, soft drinks and juices” (- 12 %). This is according to figures shared with La Libre by Fevia, the federation of the Belgian food industry. The decline is partly due to the increased sugar tax in France, which resulted in a price increase of 9.1 %.

Cross-border purchases in the Netherlands fell even sharper, by 11.5 %. The price war between Jumbo and Albert Heijn in Belgium means that consumers there no longer need to cross the border to take advantage of “Dutch prices”. At the same time, there was an increase in cross-border purchases in Luxembourg and Germany of 3.7 % during the same period. The fastest growth (+ 32 %) was for the category “water, soft drinks and juices”.

Despite the recent decrease, France remains by far the most important market for cross-border purchases, accounting for 223 million euros of the 343 million euros spent by Belgian shoppers across the border in the first half of the year. Fevia fears that cross-border purchases will rise again following the introduction of a new sustainability tax in Belgium.