The market is moving in a festive rhythm ahead of Easter, while the festive opening hours of the shops in Athens and Thessaloniki came into effect last Thursday. In fact, on Palm Sunday, April 9, the shops will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The extended hours which will be in place until Holy Saturday will help consumers do their Easter shopping.

This year’s holiday traffic has started satisfactorily, according to the estimations of the commercial world, which expects it to develop much better during Holy Week and to “warm up” with the Easter gift to private sector workers.

“The Easter turnover is another bet for the entire market in Attica” the president said in a statement Regional Chamber Council of Attica, Vassilis Korkidis.

According to him, this year’s Easter gift, amounting to 1 billion euros, should be paid to private sector workers by Holy Wednesday, April 12, 2023. payment of the gift, at which point the “time-pressing” search of the buying public for the appropriate purchases for the Easter days begins. The market, however, hopes to absorb a large part of the Easter gift, counting on overcoming the usual sluggish movement of the last few years and surpassing last year’s Easter turnover of 1.5 billion euros,” stressed Mr. Korkidis.

At the same time, traffic is also increasing in supermarkets with consumers using a combination of the “household basket”, the “Lenten basket” and the “Easter basket” to organize their festive table in time.

The ‘Easter basket’ has been in effect in supermarkets from Wednesday 5 April and will run until Holy Saturday 15 April. Includes lamb, goat, bun and chocolate eggs. “The prices of lamb and goat, the basic good that our fellow citizens prefer for the Easter holidays, were absolutely kept at last year’s levels with a precision of a minute” the Minister of Development and Investments said in his statements. Adonis Georgiades.

As he said, “after a long period of concern about the price of ovelia and Easter goods, we, as the Ministry of Development, had kept our cool and had said that we are taking the necessary steps to contain the increases. We helped households find meat at an affordable price, dealing with the consequences of wartime precision. Despite initial fears of a large increase in lamb and goat prices this year, the target price of 10 euros was achieved by keeping the prices in the basket at last year’s final levels.

At the same time, the implementation of the “household basket” continues successfully, which is in its 23rd week of operation. “We are approaching the six months and we see that the basic products have remained absolutely stable and many of them have already decreased. I want to thank the supermarket chains.

The competition worked and I expect next week to have new reductions” said Mr. Georgiadis in his statements. For his part, the Deputy Minister of Development and Investments, Nikos Papathanasis, emphasized that the prices of 90% of the products, during the twenty-third week that the “household basket” is in force, have remained the same or lower.

“The basket, as a whole, decreased in cost from last week by 1.25%. At the moment, in fact, four baskets are in force: The “household basket”, the “Lenten basket”, the “godfathers’ basket” and the “Easter basket”. We continue to build dykes in this accuracy crisis,” he emphasized.

Consumers also have until April 15th the “godfathers’ basket” that premiered on March 29th. The “godparents’ basket” was created to make it easier for godparents to buy gifts for their godparents at better prices. It will include a total of 12 toy categories, as follows: Easter candles – toys, board / puzzles, doll toys, dollhouses and other accessories (pretend toys), baby toys, action figures, construction and creation toys (e.g. brick toys ), vehicles – remote control, electronic toys, sports toys (eg balls, children’s basketballs and goals), stuffed animals, musical toys and chocolate eggs. Each store can choose to include one or more categories of products in the “godfather’s basket” so that the measure can also be applied by small stores. It is noted that toy companies with an annual turnover of more than 1,000,000 euros will compulsorily participate in the “godfathers’ basket”, as well as voluntarily those with a smaller turnover who wish to do so.

The focus is on the cost of the Easter table and amnoerifia

In a climate of intense inflationary pressures and with limited disposable income of consumers, this Easter the focus is on both the cost of the Easter table and the lambs.

According to Mr. Korkidis, “compared to last year’s Easter, the traditional arrow is expected to reach consumers’ tables this year, both due to the jump in production costs for livestock farmers and the reduction of livestock.”

As he emphasizes, “increases in food, which are included in the Easter table, are almost certain to limit consumption and Easter turnover in many other branches of the retail trade, such as seasonal gifts, toys, candles, chocolates, children’s clothing and footwear, which make up a large part of Easter festive spending, while a “slowdown” in sales volume is observed in supermarket purchases, in contrast to turnover.

However, the central and regional markets of Attica, despite the many difficulties, price increases and energy costs that all businesses have suffered, guarantee the absolute sufficiency of all Easter items and food for consumers, whether they go for Easter in the village, or stay in the Basin”.

Based on research carried out by the Institute of Consumers (INKA), this Easter the festive table is estimated to be 12.6% more expensive (or 38 euros) than last year.

Specifically, the Easter table for 6-8 people is invited, according to INKA it will cost 334.05 euros compared to last year which cost 296.25 euros. It is noted that the Easter table includes, among other things, meats (lamb and chicken), vegetables, stews and cheeses, various other products and soft drinks/alcoholic beverages.

As far as the lamb market is concerned, the vice-president of the Hellenic Livestock Association (SEK), Dimitris Moschos, in his statements recently spoke about the sufficiency of Greek lambs in our country, despite the increased exports that have been made this year since January – earlier than any other year . Mr. Moschos emphasized that the price for the consumer is expected to be higher than last year.

As he explained, due to shortages in foreign markets and with the Catholic Easter being a week earlier this year than the Orthodox, Greek breeders exported more lambs by at least 20%, compared to 60,000 last year.

With the production cost this year close to ten euros per kilo, compared to 8.5-9 euros/kilo last year, Mr. Moschos underlined that the breeders cannot make lamb goats available for Easter this year at a cost of less than nine euros/kilo. In any case, as he clarified, “our decision to sell lamb goats at the price of 9 euros/kg, lies in the perceived difficulty of Greek citizens in the midst of precision on all fronts” and in this context he estimated that the final consumer price for Greek lamb will fluctuate at 13-14 euros/kg, i.e. close to last year’s levels when it was 12-13.5 euros/kg.

However, the breeders were opposed to the addition of lamb goats to the household basket arguing that, if the goat is sold at a price close to ten euros/kg, this will create a “suffocation” in the small butchers, which support the livestock industry.

In order to deal with the accuracy, the SEC has proposed a reduction or zero of the VAT rate, on the basic types of food until the end of the year, support for animal husbandry to deal with the increase in production costs, intensification of controls on imported lambs (from Romania, etc.) which are Greekized and the adoption of support measures for butchers and furthermore they request strict and intensive controls in view of Easter.