Croatia Shoppers Not Benefitting From Big Food Chains

Competition among different large retail food chains in Croatia - both foreign and domestic - is not resulting in cheaper prices for consumers, Tanja Popovic Filipovic, head of the Centre for Educating and Informing Consumers told BIRN, after the Dutch company entered Croatian retail market.

"Although there is a free market, they [the food retailers] harmonise their prices between themselves," she said, explaining that none of them is ready to offer lower prices than the competition.

"This doesn't bring anything good for the consumers," Popovic Filipovic added, claiming that many prices had gone up since the New Year.

The Croatian Competition Agency approved on February 1 the acquisition of the Croatian stores of Austrian retail food chain Billa by the Dutch company Spar.

The acquisition for an undisclosed sum, first announced in December, means Spar taking control of 62 Billa stores and their logistics centre in Croatia, which employs around 1,900 workers.

The acquisition of Billa stores brings Spar closer to Croatia's leading retailer Konzum, which is part of the Agrokor Group, owned by Croatian businessman Ivica Todoric. It is one of the biggest companies in the region, with over 60,000 employees.

Popovic Filipovic said the only thing that would "actually save money for consumers, is cutting the chain that runs from the producer to the final consumer, i.e. "buying products from small local producers".

According to research for 2015 published by the EU statistics agency Eurostat in June, prices in Croatia for food and non-alcoholic beverage remain 9 per cent below the EU average.

However, salary differentials between Croatia and the EU and far wider. The average salary in the EU is 1,508 euros a month while the...