Coffee... chocolate: Norway continues to see steep rise in price of food items
"Food prices rose in the last month, but more slowly compared to last year, " Camilla Rochlenge, senior advisor at Statistics Norway, said.
Despite the slower monthly increase, food prices were still 4.4 percent higher in June than they had been a year earlier.
Items such as chocolate and coffee have seen especially sharp increases, with prices up 22 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively, over the past year.
Eggs and beef products also contributed significantly to the annual rise.
Not all food items became more expensive, however. Ice cream prices dropped by 2.1 percent from May to June, though they remain 1.7 percent higher than in June 2024.
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READ ALSO:
Three reasons why food prices in Norway are so high
In April a report from the Norwegian Competition Authority
pointed to three potential factors to explain why food prices in Norway continued to shoot up.
The report outlined that weak competition in the grocery sector meant that supermarkets could charge more than they otherwise would. According to the report, Norwegians bought around 95 percent of their food from one of the three major chains – meaning Coop, Rema and Norgesgruppen have almost the entire market to themselves.
Furthermore, the process to import foods that aren't subject to tariffs was difficult, according to the watchdog. This makes it difficult to bring cheap food into Norway. It also favours the larger chains that have far more staff available to deal with the red tape.
Meanwhile, new entrants to the grocery market are effectively blocked from being able to find suitable premises. The big chains have used negative easements, which set limits on what a property can be used for, in order to block off potential locations for competitors.
Despite this practice no longer being allowed, the Norwegian Competition Authority reported that the biggest chains seemed to have found a way around the ban.
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