Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson (M) and Rural Affairs Minister Peter Kullgren (KD) have summoned actors from the food chain due to the increasingly expensive food.
In March 2023, Svantesson summoned Ica, Coop, and Axfood. Food prices had then increased by 20 percent in one year.
But the General Secretary of the Swedish Consumers' Association, Johanna Hållén, sees no clear result since the last meeting.
Although the price increases were dampened for a period, it is difficult to say what it depended on. What is serious is that they have taken off again and are expected to increase in the coming years.
Those with high incomes can offset the increase by changing their consumption pattern – compared to low-income earners who already buy low-price products today, Hållén believes. She therefore wants to see measures for groups with low incomes.
Those who are vulnerable today will become even more vulnerable, says Hållén.
Proposed measures
In connection with the previous meeting, the Competition Authority was tasked with examining the industry.
In its report from June 2024, the authority notes that consumers have had to pay more for many goods than was justified, and that the situation would not have arisen with well-functioning competition.
They also came up with a number of proposals to the government on how to improve competition. Among other things, about reviewing the Planning and Building Act (PBL) to make it easier to establish new stores in the municipalities.
At the Competition Authority, they are satisfied with how the government has acted.
We have noted that the government has given an assignment to the National Board of Housing, Building and Planning regarding PBL and how it can facilitate the entry of stores. So we see that positively, says Arvid Fredenberg, chief economist at the Competition Authority.
"It takes time"
He also notes that changes are underway in how actors have collaborated on product launches.
The collaboration regarding launch windows for products has been terminated by the daily goods suppliers' association and will be abolished. That is also positive.
The authority has also proposed a tightening of the Competition Act to counteract acquisitions that reduce competition at the local level, but which the government has not yet taken a stance on.
Fredenberg emphasizes that it takes time before the measures are noticed in the stores.
Not much has happened since we published our report. There are still deficiencies in competition, and it takes time before they disappear, he says.
