Powdered infant milk in Greece is sold in supermarkets or pharmacies for up to twice as much as in other European Union countries, revealed a study published in early January by the Greek Competition Commission which compared November sales prices for several brands. Thus, a powdered milk for newborns under 6 months of 800 grams from the Nestlé brand is sold for 27 euros in Greece compared to 14 euros in France and 11 euros in Sweden. Products so coveted that, in certain Greek supermarkets, they have been equipped with anti-theft devices for more than a year.
The information did not go unnoticed in Greece where salaries still remain low after a decade of economic crisis (2009-2018) despite the recovery. The equivalent of the minimum wage does not exceed 780 euros gross. Until 2011, baby milk was only sold in pharmacies. After the market opened and the product was sold in supermarkets, the authorities hoped for a drop in prices. But, since the recession, the Covid-19 pandemic and inflation have been there. Between 2022 and 2024 alone, the prices of infant milk have increased between 14% and 28% depending on the brand.
“ Having children in Greece has almost become a luxury! I spend more than 500 euros per month on food and milk”, explains Irini Chalari who lives in a suburb of Athens. Added to this is the cost of a private nursery at 260 euros per month due to lack of places in the public sector and schedules adapted to working parents. With a variable salary as a freelance photographer and despite her partner’s stable job, the thirty-year-old has difficulty making ends meet: “Luckily, my mother helps me, looks after my son when I need it to avoid paying an extra babysitter. But without help from family, it is very difficult. »
A “question of national preservation”
The subject is all the more sensitive in Greece as the birth rate is at its lowest. In 2022, 76,000 births were recorded in the country and half of women do not breastfeed. The baby milk market is therefore small, dominated by four multinationals which sell to supermarkets more expensively than in other countries because the latter do not place very large group orders.
Fertility in Greece is 1.43 children per woman, well below the generation renewal threshold (2.1 children per woman) and the average within the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which is of 1.58 children per woman. In 2020, for the first time since 1932, the Greek population decreased. According to projections, Greece could even have only 9 million inhabitants in 2050 compared to 10.6 million currently.
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