Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson (M) and Rural Minister Peter Kullgren (KD) will on Thursday meet actors from the food chain, due to the increasingly expensive food.
The hope is a stop for price increases and even lower prices on some goods – in a situation when many Swedes have it tough.
– It is tight for a lot and that worries me, because I want people to be able to buy food. I want you to be able to get the purchasing power back, says Svantesson in News Morning.
Competition problems
Part of the problem is about the food giants owning such a large part of the market.
The Swedish Competition Authority has previously pointed out that there is a competition problem in the industry and Boverket has been commissioned to review how it will be easier to establish a store in a municipality.
– Consumers need more to choose from. The competition is too weak, it is quite obvious, says Svantesson.
Raging against shrinkflation
Many goods can today have the same price, but you still get less for the money, as the packaging is smaller. The phenomenon is something that annoys Sweden’s finance minister.
– Another thing that can disturb is this shrinkflation. That the price of a product is about the same but that the packaging is smaller. We see it on diapers, we see it on coffee, she says and continues:
– I get very disturbed, because it is not easy for consumers to make these comparisons. Here I think we all want to hear how they (the food giants, ed. Note) reason.
Understands the irritation of Axfood
On Thursday, it was clear that Axfood, who among other things owns Hemköp, Willys and Mat.se, will distribute almost SEK 1.9 billion to the shareholders.
This would be enough for almost SEK 140,000 per employee within the Group – but the employer instead wants to hold back wage increases to the employees in this year’s contract operations.
Elisabeth Svantesson understands the frustration many have known about the huge dividend.
– First and foremost, of course, our stores and companies should make a profit, everything else would be quite difficult. But of course, these levels stick in the eyes of consumers, which some can hardly afford to buy food.