Same product, higher price in Albania than Europe - Ciko: Our incomes do not match the costs of food products
Has it ever happened to you during your travels in Europe, to enter a supermarket and find products like in Albania, but at significantly lower prices than in our country? Researcher and lecturer Ilir Ciko has brought for the third consecutive year a study on the monopolistic positions of supermarkets that sell mainly food products, but not only, in the Albanian market.
Despite the fact that our country has improved compared to the previous place, we still rank first in the region in terms of the highest prices of products traded in Albania compared to European countries.
"There is a slight improvement in Albania compared to last year, we have dropped to 83rd, as a position, but we are the last country in the region compared to all other countries, while countries like Montenegro have undergone a fairly significant improvement compared to last year. The prices traded by the company in question, a European company that operates in many European countries, today in Albania are 83% higher than the prices of the same products that the same company trades in the European Union market," said Ciko.
In liberalized and more competitive markets, prices match wages, while for products sold in supermarkets, there is a large gap between prices and wages to afford their purchase.
"How are the prices for products that are completely liberalized and there are no monopoly positions? The simplest example I have taken is a haircut at a barber's, for men. A very symbolic price, but it is a completely open market, there is full competition, there are barbers everywhere, in all European countries and in Albania, there is no monopoly structure, and the price in Albania corresponds completely to the level of salaries we have in Albania, just as the price of a haircut at a barber's in Berlin, in Paris, in Denmark, everywhere in European countries, corresponds to the level of salaries they have,"
According to Ciko, the Albanian consumer pays a cost ranging from 130-260 million euros, while there has been no reaction from the institutions responsible for monitoring the market or the companies themselves.
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