Festive table on New Year’s Eve: lamb and goat meat “overthrew” pork

The old year is leaving, and you need to spend it “as it should”, with a generously laid table. What will the Greeks have on it?

According to experts, the “king” of the festive table in past years was pork. And in the current one, it is mutton and goat meat that vigorously claim leadership. “We do not have time to butcher carcasses of lambs and kids,” Nikos Balapanidis, President of the Association of Butchers of Thessaloniki Prefecture, emphasizes in an interview with APE-MPE, “at a time when meat products are experiencing an average increase in prices (on average by about 20%), lamb and goat meat this year are available to a larger number of consumers, because they are cheaper than in the corresponding period last year. The price for them is 9-10 euros/kg, compared to 12-13 euros/kg in 2021.” According to him, this year there is a very weak consumer interest in turkey, the cost of which has increased by more than 10% compared to last year at a price of 8.5 euros / kg.

Holidays are always a good time for butchers, regardless of turnover, notes the president of the Thessaloniki Prefectural Butchers Association, pointing out that “consumers began to buy much less meat (as much as their wallet can “hold”), but they still visit the market, for which we are very grateful to them“. As for shopping activity, Mr. Balapanidis notes that many purchases were made in the days before Christmas and on the eve of the New Year: “we have work, housewives buy additional products for their holiday table.”

And although many traders are talking about a drop in the “meat market” of more than 40% during the holidays this year, the real drop is still 20% compared to the same period in 2021. “Consumers want to make larger purchases, but are unable to because of rising prices for almost everything. So their orders and purchases are fully thought out / calculated,” says Mr. Balapanidis.

As for meat prices, the specialist notes that consumers can find pork at prices ranging from 6.50 to 7.50 euros/kg (5-6.50 euros in 2021), beef from 11-13 euros/kg (9- 11 euros last year), chicken from 4.5 euros and sausage (on average) for 7.5 euros.

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