The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) reports a continuing difference between the retail and wholesale price of some food products. A “typical markup of products in the range of 20-70% of goods in retail trade“ is established. These are the conclusions of the union in connection with monitoring prices from the small consumer basket for August 2025. The data were presented today.
For many products such as rice, fresh milk, cheese, eggs, tomatoes and cucumbers, potatoes, apples, the markup is over 50% for the end consumer compared to the stock exchange price, the CITUB reports. Significant differences by region for a number of key goods, with deviations reaching 19% below and above the average price for the country, the data also show.
Small retail outlets generally maintain lower prices compared to large chains, the CITUB also found. CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov commented that this discrepancy should be investigated in more depth. Several goods permanently and constantly maintain lower prices in small retail outlets. Among them are sausages, eggs, tomatoes, said Dimitrov. According to him, sausages are about 1.60 leva more expensive in retail chains than in small stores. Rice, however, is cheaper in large stores.
The largest price increase in large retail chains is for cucumbers - on a monthly basis of 7.5%, said the director of the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research and Training (ISSIO) and chief economist of the confederation, Lyuboslav Kostov. In small chains, the largest price increase is for white beans -5.7% per kilogram, he pointed out.
The Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions also found that "there is exceptional inhomogeneity in the pricing" of 21 goods from the small consumer basket by region. Flour is the most expensive in Varna, Ruse and Montana with about 4-5% of the average price. This product is the cheapest in Pazardzhik, Smolyan and Razgrad. Pork leg (kilogram, boneless) is the most expensive in Vidin, Veliko Tarnovo and Sofia. Potatoes are the most expensive in Dobrich, Pernik and Burgas. Sausages are the most expensive in Vidin, Smolyan and Sofia.
Among the other conclusions of the Confederation of Bulgarian Trade Unions are that on a monthly basis, a slight increase in the prices of the small consumer basket (+0.3%) is observed. More significant price dynamics are observed in fruit prices, dictated by the seasonality of the product.
According to Plamen Dimitrov, there is a hidden markup from the producer to the store chain, which we do not know how much. The Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) is preparing an analysis of food prices, he told journalists. Dimitrov believes that the regulator should compare data for longer periods, because “the indecently high levels achieved remain and that is why people rightly believe that prices are high“.