Eurostat: Food products prices in Albania more expensive than in Europe

For the first time since 2005, when the European statistical unit measures data, the non-alcoholic Food and Drink Prices Index for Albania has exceeded 100% (100.1%), which means that food prices in Albania are 1% more expensive than the European Union average, at a time that income according to purchasing power method is 41% of the EU average.

From 2005 to 2018, food prices in Albania averaged 68.8% of the EU average. From 2018, their dancing began, while in 2023, prices in Albania were only 7% cheaper than the EU average. While in 2024 prices were tied for the first time, they even slightly exceeded 1%.

The most expensive food products for Albanian families in relation to the EU are eggs, cheese and milk, which have danced at 131% of the EU average, down from 119.5% last year.

Other foods are also about 25% more expensive than in the EU (124.8%). No alcoholic beverages are 19% more expensive than in Europe. Freer Albanians buy cigarettes that cost 47% of the European average.

Alessandro, tourists from Italy, leaving a supermarket in Tirana. Asked about prices, he is somewhat disappointed, having imagined Albania to be a cheaper location -- “not so expensive”. “We just got out of the supermarket.

While we were inside, we didn't have time to calculate the conversion of prices and we thought it would cost us about 10-15 euros, ” he shows.

We got some things for dinner: one summer, drink, pasta, meat, tomato sauce and vegetables for salad. We added two different types of cheese, and in total, we paid about 35 euros, more expensive than in Bologna,”, Alessandro adds.

Elmore, another British tourist, has made a comment on Visit Albania's page for a supermarket in Golem. “Blem 5 tomatoes, 3 onions, a green salad head, a bag of small potatoes and a green pepper... 15 euros. P EXPLAIN! I asked him carefully if the price was correct, and the saleswoman started printing numbers in the calculator.

He showed me the screen and that was the price. It could be true, right? ? Today we went into another supermarket for some small stuff nothing big, no British product that normally costs more and paid with a card...

Over 14 pounds! The lady waiting for us here told us that it's actually cheaper to eat in restaurants than to try to cook yourself in the apartment with her own self-service, he writes.

There are many tourists who, while restaurants value them cheaply, find the prices of food they buy in stores but supermarkets more expensive than in their own country.

Eurostat's latest data, measuring the price index, measured according to the equality of purchasing power, for European Union states and candidate countries confirm this tendency.

Compared to other European countries, food prices in Albania are almost the same as in Germany, Portugal, Italy, while costing more than in Spain, Czechia, Poland, Bulgaria and are the most expensive in the region.

In Europe, the most expensive food prices are in Switzerland (158.5% of the EU average), Iceland (143.9), Norway (131.2). The cheapest are Turkey (76.7%), Romania (75.5), Northern Macedonia (73.4%). For Kosovo the latest data is for 2022, at the 83.7% EU average level, reports Monitor, the Periscope broadcast.

The reasons behind these differences relate to high tax rates for basket goods in Albania, especially T V US, high transportation costs, inadequate logistics, speculation and lack of competition. Periscop/