It was relatively calm on the food price front during large parts of 2023 and 2024.
This year, prices have however increased significantly again. They rose sharply already in January and in February, the curve turned upwards even more, according to the Food Price Monitor.
What has increased is many chocolate products. In January, it was also, for example, coffee and juices, all these increases are climate-related, says Ulf Mazur.
Not least, it is also the heavyweight dairy products that have increased in price, he continues.
There is a shortage of milk. But it's not actually the milk we Swedes are after, but butter and cream, i.e. the fattier products.
The problem is that there is not enough milk production in Europe. It drives up dairy prices significantly.
"There are imbalances"
According to the survey – which is based on 44,000 products in Swedish food stores – the price of food-related products increased by 1.3 percent in February, while the increase for all daily goods totaled 1.0 percent.
It is the largest increase since the beginning of 2023.
For dairy products – including cheese and chilled juices – the increase in February was 3.8 percent and for chocolate as much as 9.2 percent. According to Ulf Mazur, there is reason to believe that prices will continue to rise in March.
It feels like there are still some imbalances. There are food chains where prices have risen more than average, so there is a risk that the others will follow, he says.
But I think the increase will be lower.
Reduces the scope
The food price surge comes in a situation where both producers and consumers are already under heavy pressure, notes Ulf Mazur.
Food is such a large part of monthly expenses. But we must probably get used to food pushing out other consumption space, he says.
Maybe you can't buy as many new clothes or go on vacation as much, because food takes and will continue to take a large part of the monthly budget.
Of the surveyed products, 38 percent increased in price in February compared to January. 54 percent of prices were unchanged, while 8 percent of products became cheaper.
