"Olive oil that costs 10 euros per liter here is twice as much in Türkiye. On average, you can buy goods for one-third the price compared with Türkiye."
Cihan Citak (48), a food and beverage corporations executive living in Istanbul, Türkiye, said he drives every month to Alexandroupolis, Greece, four hours away by car, to shop for groceries. It is a habit formed as food prices in Istanbul have surged. Citak said, "I mostly fill my shopping cart with groceries such as wine and cheese," and noted, "It is very easy to find people from Türkiye inside the stores."
According to Bloomberg on the 9th (local time), the northeastern Greek port city of Alexandroupolis has recently been packed with shoppers from Türkiye. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, 6% of people from Türkiye who visited Greece from January to September this year crossed the border for "shopping purposes," the highest level since 2012. On social media (SNS) such as TikTok and YouTube, content comparing prices of Greek and Turkish products is gaining popularity.
In fact, the price gap between the two countries is clear. For example, at the Alexandroupolis hypermarket chain Lidl, ground beef is 9.36 euros per kilogram, about 20% cheaper than Carrefour in Istanbul (12.10 euros). Sausages are priced at about half, and Gouda cheese and Kinder chocolate are known to differ by up to 70%. It is seen as a complete reversal of the earlier trend in which people traveled from Greece to Türkiye for shopping.
A shift in Türkiye's currency policy is behind this change. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye, who has been in power since 2003, kept an accommodative monetary policy, saying he would "reduce ordinary people's interest burden and boost the economy," and is assessed to have caused a continued decline in the value of the national currency. In particular, as the Central Bank was politically steered, the lira plunged rapidly and inflation soared to a punishing level.
In 2023, with Minister of Finance Mehmet Simsek appointed and a turn to high interest rates and austerity, the food inflation rate fell from 54% to 35%, but consumer-perceived prices remain high. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute, since Minister Simsek took office, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages have risen 144%, and the Central Bank has predicted that inflation this year will exceed 30%.
As the burden of prices grows, political sparring is intensifying. Ozgur Ozel, leader of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), criticized, saying, "We have become a country where people must go abroad to buy groceries," and, "This is the result of 23 years in power."
In fact, in western Turkish cities, "Greece grocery shopping tours" are emerging as new travel products. Travel agencies in places such as Istanbul, Canakkale and Bursa are running one-day bus tours to Alexandroupolis, Greece, for about 50 euros (84,000 won).
For example, the travel agency Atom Tour sells an overnight bus tour that departs Istanbul every Friday and arrives in Alexandroupolis on Saturday morning. After three and a half hours of free shopping, participants have lunch and a city tour before returning in the afternoon. A representative of the agency hinted, "Meat and cheese, as well as seafood meals, are half price, so they are very popular."
Experts believe this trend will not be a "flash in the pan." Unless the gap is closed between a government touting currency stability and price easing and ordinary people facing soaring table prices, so-called "expedition shopping" will become a necessity rather than a choice.
Meanwhile, global credit rating agency Moody's in July raised Türkiye's sovereign credit rating one notch to "Ba3" from "B1." It was the first time in about a year since July 2023 that Moody's upgraded Türkiye, and the agency explained the upgrade by saying it had "pursued a currency policy that is gradually restoring domestic and international confidence in the lira."