site.btaFood for Easter: How Much Costlier than Last Year?

The prices of some basic Easter foods in Bulgaria are somewhat higher in 2025 than in 2024. “This is the case with Easter cake and fresh vegetables, while lamb and egg prices remain basically unchanged from last year,” Petar Mishev, an economic analyst with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), told BTA in an interview.

Mishev noted that Easter is one of the two most important holidays for Bulgarian Orthodox Christians, just as for the rest of the Christian world, the other one being Christmas. The official Easter holiday period, beginning on Good Friday and ending on Easter Monday, “is a time to be with one’s family, an occasion to get recharged with good memories and merry moments,” he said. “Traditional meals are an integral part of the festival, and their cost is, understandably, on people’s minds.”

A CITUB survey shows that a kilo of high-quality Easter cake costs at least BGN 10. Lamb can be bought for about BGN 26/kg. Vegetable prices have increased by an average of 3% year on year, with lettuce going up by as much as 20%. A few other traditional foods, including eggs, complete the typical Easter meal. A rough estimate shows that the average Bulgarian household would need a food budget of BGN 113 for Resurrection Sunday, Mishev said.

Asked about the factors which impact prices, he said that, generally, inflation has slowed over the last few months. “At the same time, prices of essential foods and non-foods continue to grow, which Bulgarian citizens feel in a very direct way,” the expert said. “The factors for the price rise so far in 2025 are the appreciation of electricity and natural gas for household consumers, the hike on water and sewerage services in almost the whole country, the return to the earlier VAT rate on bread and flour, the increase in various administrative fees such as those for the issuance of identity cards, and so on. It can already be predicted that inflation in 2025 will surpass the assumptions in the state budget scheme for this year.”

BTA correspondents across Bulgaria have not detected any major price hike for the basic Easter foods (cake, eggs, lamb) compared with last year, but still, they report growing prices in some areas. Nowhere have they seen prices fall. Home-produced and larger eggs are more expensive than mass-produced and smaller ones, and Bulgarian-produced lamb costs more than imported lamb. Easter cake prices vary, depending on the ingredients; products with additional ingredients and those that are handmade cost more.

The BGN 50 Easter supplement to the pensions of 687,000 Bulgarians whose pensions are under the poverty line of BGN 638 per month, is not large, but “something is better than nothing”, Mishev went on to say. “BGN 50 is what you would spend on a single trip to the supermarket,” he commented. “We should appreciate the fact that the Finance Ministry managed to set aside resources for a supplement for the poorest pensioners, although the money was not planned in this year’s state budget. It gives our parents and grandparents a small reason to celebrate Easter with more hope.”