Clean Monday: Premiere for Greece’s “Lent basket” – Soaring costs for traditional fare

In order to support the feast of Clean Monday, the “Lent basket” premieres today Wednesday, which includes all fasting foods except the lagana flat bread and will be stay on until Holy Week.

The Lenten table is expected to be more expensive this year, as price increases have set fire to most of its products.

It will include halva, fasting salads in the form of spreads such as roe salad, aubergine salad and frozen seafood, of which businesses participating in the “household basket” must add at least two items to the “Lenten basket” for the duration of Lent, including frozen seafood, with at least two types in every supermarket.

Before Holy Week, the products that will be included in the Easter basket will be announced, which will be on supermarket shelves from Holy Wednesday until Holy Saturday.

Lagana

The Lenten table is expensive

Lagana are not included in the “Lent basket” as they are an item sold in bakeries, which are not included in the household basket. Lagana is a Greek flatbread traditionally baked for Clean Monday, the first day of the Great Lent.

Lagana will fly like a kite this year (kite flying is also a Clean Monday tradition), and the bakers themselves predict that its price can hardly be contained. Businesses cite the energy cost and that of raw materials, which in one year have even increased by 100%. “A bag of flour was 10 to 12 euros last year and this year it is 22 to 24, and all the raw materials, sesame seeds, electricity, have gone up, everything has become more expensive”, emphasizes Panagiotis Sachinidis, the president of Syntechnia Bakers of Athens.

Lagana is expected to cost the consumer between 3.50 and 5 euros this year. Last year, bakeries sold it for 3 to 3.5 euros, while in 2021 it cost only 2.30 to 3 euros.

                                                        2022                                2023

Lagana (Athens):                             €2.80 – €3.50                              €3 – €3.90

Lagana (Thessaloniki):                   €2.30 – €3                                   €2.50 – €3.40

Halva                                                  €6 – €12.50                                 €6.60 – €13.80/kg

Fish Roe salad                                 €5 – €5.50                                     €6 – €6.50/kg

Pickles                                              €2.50 – €3                                    €3 – €3.50

Seafood prices are “scathing” this year
(fish shop prices)

                                             2022                                      2023

Octopus                                         €18 – €19                                    €20- €23

Calamari                                      €17 – €18                                     €20 – €22

Squid                                             €8 – €10                                      € 11 – 13€

Greek shrimp                              €3.50 – €4                                   €7 – €8