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Why supermarket prices in Norway will likely see a huge jump in early 2023

Robin-Ivan Capar
Robin-Ivan Capar - [email protected]
Why supermarket prices in Norway will likely see a huge jump in early 2023
The grocery industry in Norway has two designated dates when it adjusts prices to cover the increased expenses reported by suppliers and producers. Photo by Marjan Blan / Unsplash

The grocery industry in Norway expects a price increase from February 1st. Furthermore, the industry expects prices to continue going up moving forward.

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Before Christmas, Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) announced that the prices would go up by 10 percent. The newspaper Klassekampen also reported similar projections.

"There are many indications that prices will be high for quite a long time to come," executive vice president for communications in Norgesgruppen (the largest grocery company in Norway), Stein Rømmerud, told the newspaper.

Figures from Statistics Norway show that food prices from November 2021 to November 2022 increased by as much as 12.7 percent.

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The Norwegian system of increasing supermarket prices

The grocery industry in Norway has two fixed dates when they adjust prices to cover increased expenses reported by suppliers.

One is on February 1st, and the other is on July 1st. Traditionally, supermarkets enter into negotiations with suppliers and producers, who ask for price increases.

This year, with the overall inflation hitting virtually all segments of society, suppliers and producers are likely to try to push up prices due to increased raw material, fertilizer, and energy prices.

The last price adjustment saw Minister of Agriculture Sandra Borch ask food chains and supermarkets not to pass on all the costs to consumers.

"It is not me as Minister of Agriculture who sets the price of food. It is set by suppliers and grocery chains. I urge and assume that they do not increase the price of food more than they have to," Borch told business site E24 in July 2022.

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