Sawt Falasteen - Swedish govt holds talks on countering rising food prices

Food prices rose by 3.9 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, the highest annual rate in two years, according to the country's official statistics agency.

Independent watchdog site Matpriskollen (The Food Price Checker) found in January that prices in Swedish grocery stores had risen by 19.1 percent over two years.

The rising prices have sparked a viral online campaign calling for a boycott of Sweden's main grocery chains this week in a bid to get them to lower prices.

In Skarholmen, a neighbourhood in southwestern Stockholm, residents told AFP they were struggling to make ends meet.

Here, open air markets and small independent grocers offer Eastern or African specialities at competitive prices for consumers looking to avoid the big chains.

"Every day the prices increase, by maybe five kronor ($0.50) for a carton of milk. The other day, I was going to buy nuts and it was very shocking: 350 kronor ($35) a kilo," said Hayedeh, a 79-year-old pensioner.

Dairy products are among those with the highest increases. The price of butter has gone up 26 percent in a year, while milk and cheese have also risen, according to the statistics agency.

Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson and Rural Affairs Minister Peter Kullgren will meet the main supermarket chains ICA, Coop and Axfood on Thursday to "listen to the industry's assessment of the situation and work together to lower prices for customers," according to the government.

The main chains account for 90 percent of Sweden's grocery store market.

"Consumers have had to pay more for many food products than what is justified by the increase in cost for the components in food production," said then head of the Swedish Competition Authority Rikard Jermsten in a report last year.

"This situation would not have happened if there had been healthy competition," he said.

Food industry actors have insisted the increases are due to factors out of their control, including the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation.

Bogdan Skorzynski, a 37-year-old painting business employee, said he quit smoking in order to be able to continue buying the same food items.

"It's a good thing for me", but "prices have risen enormously and my salary has stayed the same".

"It's not okay."

G.AbuOdeh--SF-PST