Last week, if you walked up to the deli counter of a supermarket in Athens, you could buy a kilo of one of the world’s most popular brands of Greek feta for under 8.50 euros ($10.40).
A kilo of exactly the same brand in a major supermarket here, will cost you nearly three times as much. Odd: particularly given that the freight cost to get that kilo of creamy feta here, works out at less than 30 cents. But then the business of bringing Greek delicacies down under, in a highly competitive market and with fierce commercial interests at stake, sadly isn’t always in favour of the consumer.
From coffee to kasseri, olives to oregano, prices of Greek products are as high as ever, and shopping around for the best price, has never been more necessary. Deli manager Melissa Mankarella at the Brunswick Supa IGA in Melbourne, told Neos Kosmos that with more than 15 varieties on feta on sale, the IGA’s margins for each type is different.
“It depends on the product, the demand, who else is selling it, and how much they are selling it for. You don’t get one feta and then immediately mark it up a certain amount. It’s about finding a reasonable price. “Dodoni’s probably the biggest seller. We have it at $22 at the moment and we do that to keep it competitive.”
Owner Vangelis, of Vangeli’s Deli at South Melbourne Market says that apart from occasional fluctuations, the price of feta from wholesalers hasn’t altered in recent months. “Any drop in prices is not being passed to us for sure,” says Vangelis.
“We normally sell one of the leading brand fetas at $25 a kilo, but we have a special offer on at the moment so it’s down to $20.” Like many, Vangelis is critical of some distribution practices which have the effect of raising prices.
“Some distributors take advantage by putting the price up, that’s true for one of the leading brands of Greek feta sold in Australia. The Greek government should do something about this. Such a brand should be distributed here by more than one distributor, then they’d sell more and the price can come down.” With some retailers having to pay $240 for a 13 kilo tin of the most popular feta brands, retailers commonly put a mark up of around 40 per cent. “If you don’t, you can’t pay wages or your rent,” says Vangelis.
“When we get products cheaper, we do pass that on to the customer. We have to, to stay competitive.”
With hundreds of customers in Victoria, interstate and New Zealand, Delta Sales imports more than 800 tonnes of Greek, Bulgarian and Danish feta, along with 30 container loads of olives a year. It’s one the most respected food import companies in Australia. Peter Economou, Delta’s financial controller, says that when at all possible, savings are passed on.
“On a number of products we have reduced the prices to the retailers, on Feta and on Kefalograviera. You have to do this to remain competitive.” Mr Economou says that it’s the many variables in the complex import equation that can keep prices from dropping.
“People feel because the dollar is strong, why don’t the prices come down. It doesn’t quite work like that. We are 16,000 kms away. It takes 30 to 60 days for a ship to arrive. It depends what you paid, and which shipping company you used. Last year the freight cost for one container was $US 900, today it’s $US 1500. “We also haven’t seen prices from the suppliers come down,” says Economou.
“Prices of feta in Greece have gone up because the cost of milk has risen and producers’ costs have increased. It’s expensive because of production costs there.” Economou is also critical of the behavior of some of the big Australian supermarket chains,who restrict consumer choice by stocking only one brand of Greek feta.
“Why don’t they look at other suppliers, so they don’t have to sell it at $27 a kilo. They can sell it at $17. An average price in the delis can be between $16 and $18. And this feta can be even better quality than a leading brand like Dodoni.”
The campaign to increase Australian consumer interest in Greek food products is worthy and timely, but unless some of the sharper practices are discouraged to enable greater consumer choice at a reasonable price, it’s going to be a hard sell.