Agreement to hold the price of cod in Barbecue at lower levels than last year, announced the Minister of Development & Investments, Adonis Georgiadis, in a meeting with the president of Varvakeio – Central Fish Market of Athens, Mr. Vassilis Simos in the presence of the General Secretary of Trade & Consumer Protection, Mr. Sotiris Anagnostopoulos.

After the meeting Mr. Georgiadis stated:

“Given that the consumer public has a reasonable interest ahead of March 25 for cod as the product we traditionally eat on this day, we had a discussion with the Varvakeio market as we did during the Lent period and we came to a – I believe – very favorable for consumers a basket deal on cod for these days.”

For his part, the President of Varvakeio – Central Fish Market of Athens, Mr. Flat explained:

“With the Minister of Development & Investments, Mr. Georgiadis and the General Secretary, Mr. Anagnostopoulos, as we coordinated the pilot basket for the week of Purgatory and for the whole of Lent, we have selected some products that we continue to pilot each week. Consumers seem to have appreciated this and come to Varvakeio market and we thank them very much.

Also we are now trying to do something with it again codfish and we have arrived at the most economical part of it at 4.98 euros/kgquality pollock, which is salted cod.

It’s a very good price, as everything has taken the rise and we were able to keep him very, very low. We are around 50 to 80 minutes down since last year and we are also around 80 minutes with 1 euro below the best pronunciation, as we did market research in the large market chains.

The Varvakeios market is again economical, we are waiting for people to choose, we have other things and other fish that are appearing these days. We also have the local Greek cod but due to supply and due to quantity we did not put it in the basket because we do not want to have some quantity in the first days and in the last days it is not in the market. It will be there too, but we hope to put something that will be certain for the consumer.”

In response to questions, Mr. Georgiadis said that this year, there seems to be a shortage of obacaliaros, and this has led the prices a little higher than last year. “The fact that we managed with Varvakeio to offer cod at a lower price than last year is a great success and I especially want to thank the fish market for that. I believe that just as the fish market worked as a price indicator for everyone else, the same will happen now,” he noted.

He also emphasized that cod has many qualities and different species. “If it’s salted cod there, the price goes up and can possibly reach 20 euros. It’s a matter of quality and variety that one can find,” he concluded.