The cost of kosher – Ask the Rabbi
Q. Why does kosher cost more? Why are there competing supervisory groups?
A. Apart from Israel and some parts of the United States, the kosher market is very small, and the costs of kashrut supervision often cannot be absorbed by the trade.
That does not mean that prices couldn’t be reduced in some cases if kosher businesses were run better.
Unfortunately, also, some supervisory agencies are said to charge unnecessarily high fees, though there is little real proof of this.
Sometimes the reason for competing supervisory groups is a matter of religious politics, but on the whole it is because some groups rely on more lenient interpretations of the law than others.
