On the threshold of the winter food season, we check the prices of seasonal fruits and vegetables. For this purpose, we go to the market in Blagoevgrad, as well as in the Macedonian city of Delchevo, where Bulgarians are regular customers.
In the words of Elitsa Grozdanova, who is a trader at the market in Blagoevgrad, for the moment there is only a difference in the price of the red pepper – from BGN 1.80 to BGN 4.
The garden tomato starts from BGN 3.50 to BGN 5.50 depending on the quality, bTV specifies. "The price of cabbage is around BGN 1.50-1.80," she says, adding that people still delay shopping for pickles because it's warm and early.
We compare prices in North Macedonia. 40 km from Blagoevgrad - in the shops in Delchevo, in the fall, visits to the market become more frequent because of the preparation of zimina, local traders say, and the prices are lower than those in our country.
„Tomatoes cost us BGN 3, cucumbers also BGN 3, peppers cost BGN 3, carrots - BGN 2. We also sell eggs, these are homemade eggs and fresh a day or two and are 30 cents each” , explains Daniela, who is a seller in a vegetable shop.
Our compatriots buy not only vegetables, local merchants share. “Most often they buy dairy products - milk, cheese, because it is cheaper for them here than in Bulgaria”, says Magdalena, who is a seller in a grocery store.
The average price of a kilogram of cheese among our neighbors is BGN 12, and of yellow cheese BGN 15. We are checking how much a few basic food products that we all put on our table will cost us in North Macedonia.
For a bottle of oil, 200 g of butter, a kilogram of flour, 500 g of cheese, 300 g of cheese and two sour milks, we paid BGN 25.
The merchants are adamant that it is not only the price that attracts their customers from Bulgaria, but something much more important.
„With us it is more genuine, with us it is our production, Macedonian. It is not imported and that is why they buy. "I have customers who have been shopping for years," says the owner of the vegetable shop Jadranka.
Useful information for those wishing to go shopping in North Macedonia is that there are customs restrictions on goods of animal origin such as cheese, yellow cheese, salami and meat - you can bring a maximum of 1 kilogram of them across the border.