It will be an expensive month for all Muslims in Brabant who participate in Ramadan. Fasting begins on Saturday. Then no food or drink is allowed for a month from sunrise to sunset. And when the fast is broken in the evening, the tastiest things are served on the table. But many foodstuffs have become twice as expensive, everyone feels that in their wallet.
For two years, it was not allowed to eat in large groups because of corona. Fortunately, everyone can now visit each other unlimited during Ramadan. Reason to make it an extra big party. And once food is eaten after a day of fasting, that food must be extra tasty. Lots of sweets, bread and chicken. All prepared by myself. But the flour, sunflower oil and chicken meat have become outrageously expensive.
Sezgin Demirel has a large Turkish supermarket in Tilburg-West. He only has a few large packages of flour, but the rest is sold out. “Our supplier says he is being pulled from all sides. He cannot promise that he can deliver everything we order.” Sezgin tries to stock up, but customers buy everything back right away. There is a lot of hoarding.
In a neighborhood further on, on Palet Square, Ali Ihsan Eroglu and his father have a somewhat smaller supermarket. The vegetables and fruits are attractive. The shelves with non-perishable foodstuffs are not empty yet, but Ali Ihsan also sees prices rising.
“You sometimes pay double for a bottle of sunflower oil. People have already stocked up a lot before. Some already bought groceries for three hundred euros last week. Two days ago I had thirty packs of flour. Now only two.” The young Turkish grocer thinks that the suppliers sometimes want to make a profit and withhold products in the hope that the price will rise.
Sezgin Demirel was surprised at the dependence of the Netherlands on Russia and Ukraine. “I didn’t know so much came from there. Also live chickens. The supply has now stopped and that is driving the price up.” Together with the consequences of the bird flu, this means that the prices for chicken fillet and chicken thigh will double. And those are precisely the products that are bought so much during Ramadan.
Sezgin: “I also feel it in my own wallet. If I pass the price of the chicken all the way through to the customer, they won’t buy it anymore. So my margin is getting smaller and smaller. The chicken becomes almost more expensive than the beef. That’s possible Just no.”
Nevertheless, both supermarket owners notice that fortunately the customer still continues to buy. They want to feel the fun of Ramadan again after the corona time. Ali Ihsan: “I bought a lot of extra baklava. It all works. Delicious.”