Does removal of value added tax on fruit and vegetables increase sale - case of a Danish retailer

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Pricing strategies are considered to be one of the important options in changing consumer food behaviour. As a result, there is a growing interest in studying the effects of interventions that promotes the healthy choice through price interventions. This paper aims to examine the effect of a pricing intervention on fruit & vegetables (F&V) in supermarkets. The intervention consisted of a removal of the 20% VAT Data on F&V sale and retailer - revenue was collected pre- and post-intervention in all chain-supermarkets. Users of ecological and conventional fruit and vegetables constituting our intervention group and the control group is users of ecological and conventional dairy products. We found a beneficial impact of the intervention on the sale and revenue related to fruit and vegetable products. The revenue and sale of fruit and vegetables increased by 354 952.60 DKK (24.92%) and 65 065.16 units (32.92%) respectively. Results suggest a beneficial impact on the sale and revenue related to fruit and vegetable products. Results show that the subsidy also had unintended impacts on the sale and revenue related to non-intervention products. That included adverse impact of the subsidy on unsubsidized healthy complementary products.

Original languageEnglish
JournalApplied Economics
Volume53
Issue number24
Pages (from-to)2743-2751
Number of pages9
ISSN0003-6846
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2021

    Research areas

  • Pricing strategies, vat removal, food taxation, supermarket, fruit &amp, vegetables

ID: 261381052