While economists are watching inflation figures Greek restaurateurs are worrying that the prices for Greece’s street food staple, the souvlaki, are climbing faster than the national inflation rate, according to a report by Reuters.
The average price for a souvlaki has gone up 30 per cent on last year to cost an average of €3.30 in Athens. The national inflation figure is 10 percent – a 28-year high.
To blame is a large rise in the cost of the main ingredients, namely meat, vegetables, sunflower oil tied to growing energy costs as well as disruptions to the supply chain by COVID.
The owner of the oldest kebab shop in Monastiraki, Thanasis Golas (aged 79) told Reuters that he felt the war in Ukraine was to blame. He relied mainly on foreign tourists as “Greek customers have been reduced substantially.”
The Grill and Restaurant Union in Athens said that price of pork had gone up by 30 percent in the past year and sunflower oil, which was mostly imported from Ukraine, had gone up by 125 percent, while electricity bills had gone up by more than 100 percent.
Spyros Bairachtaris whose family has run a restaurant in the shadow of the Acropolis for 140 years said it was a struggle to keep the price of his souvlaki below €3.
But US visitor Dave Disis put things in perspective: “I would pay €10 for that souvlaki, it’s delicious.”
