Lambs for Easter and St. George weigh more and are slightly more expensive – 2024-04-02 08:46:48

With a norm of 25-30 kg, the animals this spring will weigh a little over 30 kilos on average

The difference in prices compared to last year is minimal – 8-10% higher

Retail chains are once again ready to sell the meat without any profit

Lamb for Easter and St. George’s Day, which this year coincide, will be at almost the same price as last year. The only difference is that the lambs themselves will be a little heavier this year. The reason is that due to the early warm weather, this spring the sheep lambed a little earlier and by Easter the lambs will be bigger, sheep breeders reported.

Normally spring lambs in Bulgaria are around 25, at most 30 kilograms, but where whole animals are sold, this year

the average size will exceed 30 kg

However, there is no difference in the taste of the meat.

Whole lambs from a farm will cost between BGN 10 and BGN 13 per kilogram of live weight. It should be borne in mind, however, that this includes the lamb’s offal, and if one wants to have a ready and cleaned lamb, its price is practically at least 50% higher.

“I raise 150 sheep and for the holidays I have prepared 50 lambs. From now on, I say that I will sell a kilogram of live weight for BGN 14. And a lamb cleaned and ready for stuffing will sell for BGN 28 per kilogram. I have done the math well. It is better to market the goods and make people happy with more normal prices, so that they can put a shoulder or half on the table, than to remain unsold”, said the 68-year-old farmer Ivan Danchev from Pazardjishko.

And residents of Smolyansko, who have the opportunity to travel to the villages around the Greek city of Xanthi, say that from there you can now buy a whole lamb at a price of around 9 euros per kilogram.

At first glance, it is cheaper than lamb in the shops in Smolyan, where it is sold for BGN 24 per kilo. But this is very conditional, because this 18 BGN per kilo of Greek lamb also includes all the parts of the animal, and if a shoulder or leg has to be put in the oven, they are also expensive, even more expensive than if you buy it from the store in Smolyan.

However, this price of Greek lamb is not higher than the leg of lamb that appeared last week in Plovdiv at BGN 32.99 per kilo. But it is only about one shop in the area of ​​the Thursday Market, where the most expensive goods in the city are sold under the hills. Normally, the leg of lamb in Plovdiv currently costs BGN 30 per kilo, the shoulder is a little cheaper, and the prices of hind and forequarters are below BGN 20 per kilo. (See the map.)

According to the data collected by the correspondents of “24 Chasa” from the stores for now

lamb is the most expensive in the shops in Pazardzhik

– BGN 33 per kilo, but in many other places it is around BGN 20-24.

According to insiders, the large retail chains will most likely act as they did in the last few years – they will buy the lamb from large Bulgarian farms at a price of around BGN 24-26 and sell it at cost price or even cheaper.

The reason is that this market is temporary and this is seen by the chains as an investment. Or rather as a lure for the customers, who will be able to buy many other products in addition to the cheap lamb. At the same time, however, this will allow the price of lamb

to stay in the market around last year’s levels

or maybe just an idea more expensive. According to people from the industry, the average price will be at most 8-10% above last year’s, and not everywhere.

“The main reason why the prices of lamb in Bulgaria are the way they are is that in our country there is some prejudice that it is consumed outside of these two holidays, which, on top of everything, coincide this year. In Italy, Croatia, Greece, Serbia, North Macedonia lamb

consumed year-round,

and not just for about two weeks of spring time. That’s why the production is more developed there, and accordingly the prices are lower”, said Simeon Karakolev, chairman of the National Sheep and Goat Breeding Association.

According to him, this year there will certainly be slaughterhouses in our country that will import North Macedonian lambs, which will only be transacted with them and will be offered on the market as Bulgarian production. Most likely the price of cleaned lambs

it will be around BGN 19-20 per kilogram

unlike the slaughterhouses, which will work with real Bulgarian produce – they will sell it for about BGN 24.

The same problem exists in neighboring Romania. It is clear from forums of breeders of our northern neighbors that last year during Easter many of them could not stand the cheaper imports and also offered the lamb at a lower price.

This year, however, there is a proposal for about a 50% higher minimum purchase price – from 15-20 lei per kilogram to raise it to 25-30 lei, which is about BGN 11.83.

The Romanians have decided to test whether anyone will buy

at that price during the Catholic Easter, which is now, but it is not yet clear whether and to what extent they have been able to impose the higher price. If no one buys the more expensive lamb by the time Orthodox Easter arrives, they will most likely adjust their prices.

Easter eggs this year cost just as much as last year at this time, but most people are convinced that prices are inflated because of the approaching holidays.

The reason is that as of June they started to become slightly cheaper, and if for last year’s holidays they cost 50-51 cents, in winter they were already 45-46 cents.

Since the beginning of March, the average price of small eggs size M from Bulgarian farms in stores

is again 50 cents per piece,

and the larger ones with size L can reach up to 58-60 cm.

However, like every year, in the days before Easter, massive imports from abroad begin and it is unlikely that there will be a sharp rise in prices.

In some places in the country, eggs cost less than 40 cents per piece, for example in Vratsa (see map above). They are mostly from 45 cents and above.

At the moment, however, people’s greatest outrage is caused by the prices of cucumbers and tomatoes, given that now on the market

they are almost 100% from Greece and Turkey,

where they are grown in greenhouses that operate without the need for heating.

For example, Tarnov residents remember how last Easter these products cost BGN 7-8 per kilo, and that’s why they now swallow the numbers on the labels.

Pensioners rely on discounts on dead, crooked and wilted cucumbers to buy them at a lower price. But even at the end of the day, it is difficult to find cucumbers for less than BGN 3 a kilo on the market. Most often, they cost between 4 and 5 BGN, including tomatoes. The exception is garden and pink tomatoes, which are sold for 7-8 BGN per kilo.

Maria Savova, an employee of a private company in Pazardzhik, shares: Every year as the Easter holidays approach

product prices are going crazy

I understand the producers who invest money for seeds, fertilizers and preparations, but the wholesalers and traders put at least a leva or two on top and rip off our skins.

My salary is BGN 1300 and I don’t know if I will be able to afford to buy lamb for the family table. In some stores, the price has already exceeded BGN 32. I will probably buy only eggs and kozunak, because their prices are more normal. And we will drive on salad.

As for the lower price of kozunaks, this is rather an illusion, because they are infinitely many types and no wonder in cheaper stores

to find even fresh kosunacs for a leva or two each

It all depends on what ingredients are in them. There are also imported kosunacs on the market, which are of very good quality, but their prices can reach up to BGN 30 per kilogram.