By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

In one month Greece will complete a year of much higher food inflation than the Eurozone average, a “sad” anniversary.

It was June 2023 when Greece and the Eurozone had the same food inflation, at 12.6%. Since then our country…stepped on the gas and you didn’t see it.

April ended with an almost threefold increase in food prices in Greece than in the rest of the Eurozone, 5.3% against 1.9%.

This is the 4th largest shear since January 2005 for which there is evidence !!! It was only bigger:

in July 2009 with 3.9 units
in April 2002 with 3.8 units
in March 2024 with 3.6 units

It is no coincidence that the Prime Minister sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen asking for the Commission’s intervention, in an indirect admission anyway that our country is finally a banana and the multinationals do do what they want.

5.3% is the 2nd highest price increase in the euro area behind only Malta which was at 5.9%.

The biggest “culprit” is of course olive oil, the price of which in Greece increased in April by 63.7% bringing Greece to 2nd place behind Spain which saw increases of 68.1%. The Community average at 52.2%.

10 days ago the largest agricultural association of Spain, the largest producer of olive oil on the planet, announced that shortages may appear in the second half of the year. Spain will produce around 845,000 tons of oil this year against 1.4 million. on average over the period 2017-2021.

Second place also in eggs where the problem continues. 1.9% increase in Greece, 0.5% decrease in the rest of the Eurozone.

Only Denmark is higher at 3.8%.

Bird flu in countries like America and extreme temperatures in countries like Mexico resulted in the deaths of millions of birds reducing the supply.

At the same time, demand also increased as many people turned to eggs for the necessary protein due to the large rise in meat prices.

Lives against vegetables as well. Inflation in Greece increased by almost 50% in one month and to 5.9% from 4% in March. Decrease in the Eurozone -0.3% although 14 times lower than the -4.3% in March.

Scientists at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research announced that their studies show that climate change will increase food prices by 0.9% to 3.2% every year until 2035!

For the record, only Irish consumers saw the biggest increase in vegetable prices in April.

By the way, we also pay in “gold” for the fruits with the 4th highest price increase in the Eurozone.

A surge in demand due to Orthodox Easter, the always-in-the-making and shortages drove headline inflation in Greece to more than double in April from 4.8% to 9.9%.

And if there wasn’t the Easter basket in which the prices were below €10/kg, who knows where the counter would stop. Result ? 3rd place here behind 18.2% of Croatia and 10% of Cyprus.

Although smaller, there was no “party” with the pork in April. Acceleration of inflation from 3.6% to 6.1% for Greece. At 2.8% the Eurozone. However, Hungarians, Croatians, Romanians, Dutch and Luxembourgers experienced greater shocks.

The championship continued in seafood and fish here too with acceleration in price increases. April closed with 6.7% from 5.7% and Greece was in 4th place, staring at 1.7% of the Eurozone.

In a worse position only Romanians, Croatians and Austrians. The increase in the prices of fish feed for the fish farms as well as Christian and Muslim fasts contributed to the increase in prices among others.

One of the most sensitive crops is the vines.

In the event of an increase in the average temperature of the earth by 2 degrees, the first to be affected are wine producers, the American Academy of Sciences has warned.

Extreme weather is shrinking global wine production by about 7% a year, according to market players. These data partly explain the 8.1% inflation in Greece in April compared to 2.5% in the euro area. 5th place ahead of the also Eastern European Croatians, Bulgarians, Estonians and Romanians.

Nevertheless, there are many products in which our country does better than the Eurozone, such as:
Greece Eurozone
Bread -0.7% 1.5%
Yogurt -2.5% -0.7%
Butter -1.5% 3.3%
Potatoes 8.6% 10.8%
Sugar -12.4% -1.5%