The Minister of Development, Kostas Skrekas, spoke about the accuracy and price of the lamb on the show “Mismatches” on SKAI.

“The goal was to enable households to get the lamb at affordable prices. Currently in the Easter basket the lamb is sold at prices below 10 eurossaid the Minister of Development.

Then he added that “our goal was for the consumer to be able to choose whether he wants to get his lamb from his butcher or if someone who wants to get it at a lower price can do it with the Easter basket.”

Asked about the complaints expressed by the producers regarding the low prices at which they sell their products, Mr. Skrekas explained that “producers’ prices were slightly higher than last year and what what we wanted was to compress the price of middlemen and finally for the lamb to appear in the supermarket basket at affordable prices”.

On the issue of lamb quality, the Minister of Development stated that “the consumer goes where he trusts, he replied. The consumer can choose. Controls are carried out by EFET, by the Ministry of Rural Development throughout the market to prevent the Greekization phenomenon. We control the market and we are not complacent.”

“We announced and published the products included in the basket and saw that they are at the same price or even lower than last Easter. The government’s aim is to de-escalate inflation and reduce precision. We haven’t gone where we want, but we are seeing a de-escalation,” he added.

Referring to the measures taken by the government, the Minister of Development emphasized that “efforts to de-escalate consist of three efforts: increasing wages, controls and stimulating competition with a digital tool which is the platform ekatanalotis».

In particular, for the ekatanalotis digital platform , Mr. Skrekas said that “we enriched it with 3,000 products found in the super market. The platform is functional and the consumer can see the prices in different super markets. With this tool, we enable the consumer to create his basket before leaving his home, and this also stimulates the competition.”

Regarding the issue of inflation, the Minister of Development stated “the general index of inflation in Greece from 2019 to date is 15.1, the lowest inflation in all of Europe. In Greece, food inflation is at 30%, which is the European average. We have taken a number of measures” while adding that the fines imposed on businesses are being collected.