Paska Index: how the cost of Easter cake has changed in Ukraine

Author

Natalia Myronova

The holiday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ — Easter in Ukraine in 2021 is celebrated on May 2. This is a movable holiday: it does not have a specific date. According to the church constitution, Easter is celebrated on the basis of the solar and lunar calendars, after the Jewish Easter, after the first full moon coming after the vernal equinox.

Due to the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, people are encouraged to watch live streaming of Easter services online. But despite the coronavirus, Ukrainians will traditionally set the table in 2021.

has been figuring out how much it costs to cook a paska at home and how the prices for Easter baskets have changed.

has taken a common paska recipe and calculated how much it costs to bake an Easter cake in 2021. When calculating, we took the average price of food in Kyiv supermarkets, in brackets—the price of the same product in 2020.

How much does it cost to bake paska in 2021:

Flour 1 kg—20.00 UAH (13.00 UAH);
Milk 500 ml—20.10 UAH (10 UAH);
Dry yeast 11 g—5.9 UAH (5 UAH);
Eggs 5 pcs—25 UAH (11 UAH);
Sugar 500 g—15.5 UAH (7.5 UAH);
Vanillin 1 pack—2.60 UAH (1 UAH);
Butter 200 g—52.99 (50 UAH);
Raisins 200 g—16.86 (14 UAH);
Lemon zest of 1 lemon and lemon juice 1 tbsp.—3.78 UAH for 100 g of lemon (7.5 UAH);
Salt about 10 g—0.26 UAH (0.20 UAH).

The final approximate amount is 162.99 UAH (UAH 119.2 in 2020). The growth amounted to 43.79 UAH.

But it's not just Easter pastries that have risen in price in 2021. The cost of the Easter basket will be about 780 UAH. This figure is 160 hryvnia more than in 2020. At that time a set of Easter products had cost 620 hryvnias, the NSC Institute of Agrarian Economics reported.

According to the calculations of scientists, in addition to paska, the Easter basket includes eggs, homemade sausage, boiled pork, lard, butter, soft and hard cheese, horseradish, and salt.

How much does an Easter basket cost in 2021

Homemade sausage 0.5 kg—130 UAH (230-305 UAH per 1 kg). Growth in comparison with 2020 is +10.2%.
Boiled pork 0.5 kg—135 UAH (230-280 UAH per 1 kg). Growth in comparison with 2020 is +22.7%.
Lard 0.5 kg—50 UAH (90-132 UAH per 1 kg).
Cheese 0.5 kg—120 UAH (200-268 UAH per 1 kg).
Butter 0.5 kg—114 UAH (180-230 UAH per 1 kg).
Soft cheese 0.5 kg—58 UAH (100-120 UAH per 1 kg).
Horseradish 250 g—14 UAH.

When filling the Easter basket with other ingredients: tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, red wine—its cost will increase to 963 UAH. This is 162 UAH or 20.2% more than the cost of a basket of the same composition in 2020. For a bottle of Cahors church wine, on average, Ukrainians will have to pay 120 UAH (80-135 UAH per bottle).

"The total cost of the Easter basket amounts to 6-7% of the average monthly salary of an ordinary Ukrainian and 20-22% of the average pension, that is, affordable for the overwhelming majority of our fellow citizens," the Institute of Agrarian Economics told.

According to the data of the analytical portal Slovo i Dilo, in 2021, compared to 2020, the price of paska fell by 7.1%—from 140 UAH to 130 UAH. But the price of eggs jumped by 95%: a carton of eggs now costs 39 UAH compared to 20 UAH last year.

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) is studying the reasons for the rise in prices for eggs, sunflower oil, and sugar, the Chairwoman of the department Olha Pishchanska wrote in the Censor.net blog.

"We are examining the nature of the rise in retail prices for eggs, sugar, and sunflower oil. An investigation has already begun on sugar. We determine whether business entities had objective reasons to do so, and whether this rise in price has a market basis," she said.

According to Pishchanska, the price could rise at the level of the manufacturer, supplier or retail chain. It is too early to draw conclusions.