Zagreb (AFP) – Fed up with paying ever-increasing prices at grocery stores and shopping outlets, Croatians have begun channeling their anger into a nascent boycott movement targeting retailers that shows signs of spreading across the Balkans. What began with a call online by consumer advocacy groups to spurn stores for a single day resulted in a more than 50 percent plunge in sales across Croatia last Friday.
“We want to send an even stronger message that the Croatian market should finally become regulated and control mechanisms put in place,” consumer advocate Josip Kelemen, who helped organize the boycott, said on Thursday. His advocacy organization is now calling for a more ambitious protest by targeting three large retail chains — Eurospin, Lidl, and DM — for a one-week boycott starting on Thursday, over alleged price discrepancies with other EU countries. The boycott will also target Coca-Cola and other carbonated drinks, along with bottled water and detergents. Croatians were also urged to avoid deliveries, banks, restaurants, and cafes this Friday, along with shopping online, paying bills, or buying fuel for a day-long protest.
Labeling it an overall “payment boycott,” Kelemen said it was aimed at sending a message “to all those who generated this unbearable situation, this natural disaster that has hit Croatian consumers, that we had enough.”
– Biting Inflation –
Similar calls for boycotts are growing across the Balkans, with social media posts in Bosnia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia imploring shoppers to stay home this Friday. The protests in Croatia come after average food prices soared by more than 30 percent in the past three years, according to official figures, while prices for basic items like eggs or bread have jumped by nearly 60 and 50 percent, respectively. Economists, however, say retailers do not shoulder most of the blame for price rises. Decades of declining agricultural production, an influx of imports, and the economy’s overreliance on tourism, along with a bloated public sector, chronic labor shortages, and a high value-added tax of 25 percent, has fueled much of the inflation.
Food commodity “deficits are huge; several billion euros of food is imported. This is not the case with other tourist countries, like Spain. They are able to feed tourists,” said economist Damir Novotny. Despite the economic complexities, public perception has increasingly homed in on retailers, with social media posts showing Croatians the prices for the same products abroad — with vast differences. Consumer groups have highlighted the price of a German brand of shampoo that costs 3.35 euros ($3.50) in Croatia — which they say is 130 percent more than its price in Germany. In Bulgaria, the price of the bottle of shampoo at the same retail chain is around 20 percent lower than in Croatia. Consumers also point to the cost of domestic products that are cheaper abroad, where average wages are higher. One kilogram of a popular Croatia-made seasoning costs 7.69 euros locally compared to 6.35 euros at a Swedish discount grocery chain, according to data published by portal Index.hr.
– Spillover –
But anger is not only being directed at retailers, with public ire turning to the government. “I boycotted last Friday and will do it again,” Marko Knezevic, a repairman in the capital Zagreb, told AFP. “It’s also a message to the authorities since their policies over the years led to all this – we destroyed production, but public administration is flourishing.” Others have begun crossing the border to nearby Slovenia and Italy in search of cheaper goods. Consumer groups have repeatedly complained that prices have risen steadily since Croatia adopted the euro as its currency in January 2023. “What cost one (former Croatian currency) kuna now costs one euro,” said Milena, a pensioner from Zagreb, echoing the feeling of many in the country of 3.8 million people.
Meanwhile, the government said Friday it would enlarge the list of products with protected prices from the current 30 to 70. “The state reacted, but others must get involved also,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said as he met with representatives of retail chains, adding that “nobody would sink if prices were a little more moderate.”
© 2024 AFP
