The Competition Authority's fresh report shows unnecessarily high food prices.
The competition is too weak in this sector, says Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson (The Moderate Party).
A new examination of the food industry by the Competition Authority shows that Swedish households pay too much for food.
The reasons include a lack of competition in the food chain, according to the authority, although the industry disagrees and blames other increased costs, such as interest rates and wages.
Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson (The Moderate Party) says she is not surprised by the report's conclusions:
There is a strong concentration in the industry. That's why we gave this assignment to the Competition Authority last year, she says.
Report to be reviewed
Last March, when food prices skyrocketed, Elisabeth Svantesson called the CEOs of the largest food chains to the Ministry of Finance. Something that, according to her, had an effect.
From April that year, food was no longer the largest contributing factor to inflation, and prices began to decrease, although they remained high, she says.
What needs to be done in the long term will now be analysed based on the proposals presented by the Competition Authority, says Svantesson.
The prices remain high, should they be lowered?
What I can conclude is that the competition is too weak in this sector, and that the Competition Authority now says it leads to too high prices for consumers and households.
"The people pay the price"
The Social Democrats' finance policy spokesperson Mikael Damberg thinks the government has been "very passive throughout this entire cost crisis".
Now we have it in black and white that it's the lack of competition here and that it's the Swedish people who have had to pay with higher food prices.
He highlights the S proposal for a food price commission that would review food prices and wants to investigate how other European countries work differently. Damberg believes that Svantesson's talks with the stakeholders "led nowhere".
There is more to be done also when it comes to legislation to give competition authorities better tools to defend competition and thereby keep prices down.
