The government sits down again today with food producers and distributors to talk about the procurement and selling prices of basic goods. The meeting follows inspection checks that confirmed something Macedonians have felt at the register for a long time: shelf prices don't always move on the logic of the market.

And the numbers are blunt. According to the State Market Inspectorate, between May 2025 and May 2026 the average procurement prices of basic food items and hygiene products rose 2.66 percent - while retail prices jumped 4.56 percent. That gap didn't evaporate into thin air. It stayed in the profit margins of some of the traders.

Economy and Labour Minister Besar Durmishi said it almost word for word: when procurement prices dropped, part of the retailers didn't cut their selling prices - they held them, or they widened their margins. In plain language: when the wholesale price falls but the shelf price stays put, the shopper pays the difference.

There's a positive signal in the data too. The latest analysis for March-June 2026 shows a different trend: procurement prices rose about 2.04 percent, retail prices only 0.16 percent. Inflation eased 0.5 percent in June, and food and soft drinks got 1.1 percent cheaper. So the margin growth is slowing - but the fattest margins were already baked into prices over the past year.

And here's the catch no meeting solves with an appeal. The government „calls on" traders to show social responsibility - but social responsibility isn't a line in the price list. If the data already shows where the gap went, the question isn't whether the traders will be politely asked, but whether anyone actually has a tool to push prices back down to where procurement already fell. Until then, the blue receipt from the register stays the most accurate inspector.