In Serbia, food is significantly cheaper than the European Union average.
This is shown by the data of the statistical agency of the European Union, Eurostat, which compares the level of prices in 37 countries for last year. Our country is in the last third of their list. Only four countries have lower prices of milk, cheese and eggs than us. Meat is 32.6 percent cheaper in Serbia compared to the EU average, and five more countries are behind us.
Zarko Malinovic from the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia points out that this research confirms that citizens in our country pay for food far below the EU average.
“It is important that they get the same, if not higher quality for that price, considering that almost 80 percent of the food from the observed categories is of Serbian origin,” Malinovic told “Novosti”.
“We are the dominant food industry in the region and if we look at regular prices of the same products rather than promotional ones, we are very competitive in the region.”
Malinovic explains that the reason why it seems that we are more expensive than some countries in the region is that we have a much larger choice and we have many more extremes in the premium, expensive category of products, which pull the average upwards.
“Our market is much bigger, the competition is more developed and that is why we have the so-called extremes within categories,” he states. For example, you can buy milk from us in the price range of 60 to 160 dinars. At the same time, premium, expensive milk is much more common than the situation in the region, and then the average is higher.”
That is why, as he says, it seems that in some countries in the region, some categories of food are cheaper. Speaking about fresh meat on our market, he points out that during the corona crisis, imports stopped and that 100% of everything Serbian and top quality was on the shelves of our traders.
In our country, you get a kilo of first class boneless veal for less than seven euros, Malinovic emphasizes. And to see where you will buy it for that money in Italy, Germany, not to mention the Scandinavian countries.
The retail chains say that the price of meat has dropped this year. Meat prices in Serbia are lower compared to the beginning of the year, according to a well-known Megamarket for Novosti.
“It was influenced by the fall in live weight prices, which occurred due to the surplus of livestock in the domestic market.”
Eurostat statistics in the meat category include beef, veal, pork, lamb, mutton, poultry, as well as meat products.
The most expensive under the Alps
Eurostat data show that the Swiss pay the most for food, 66.3 percent above the EU average, and meat as much as 134 percent more.
Within the European Union, the highest price of meat in 2019 was in Austria, almost 50 percent higher than the average. France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Finland follow. The cheapest meats are in Poland and Romania, followed by Bulgaria and Lithuania, BiF reports.
