Norway’s notoriously high food prices have become a bit easier to swallow. State statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) has confirmed that they declined rather suddenly during the summer, to a degree that also has brought declines in both the country’s consumer price index (CPI) and its inflation rate. Newspaper Dagsavisen reported this week that food […]
Amusement park denies serving Norway’s ‘worst food’
July 2, 2017
The Tusenfryd amusement park south of Oslo serves “Norway’s worst food,” declared newspaper Aftenposten over the weekend. The newspaper’s restaurant critics gave the park their lowest grades at seven different eating spots, calling the food “overpriced and gruesome,” but the park’s director objects. “Want some mushy and terrible chicken nuggets with some pale, tasteless fries?” queried the […]
Farmers win more subsidy, protection
May 31, 2017
Norwegian farmers have proven themselves once again to be among the most powerful political lobbyists in the country. Now they have succeeded in blocking government efforts to reform agriculture and limit their subsidies, by gaining support from opposition parties and even the government’s own two support parties in an election year. After weeks of noisy protests […]
Farmers blocked grocery shipments
May 19, 2017
Norwegian farmers, angry that their state subsidy demands haven’t been met, set up blockades around wholesale food distribution centers all over the country on Friday morning. Grocery store chain Coop called the protest action “meaningless and ridiculous,” and warned that consumers would be hit the hardest. “The farmers are punishing the customers they live off of,” Bjørn […]
Farmers demand hefty pay raises
April 26, 2017
Norway’s farming organizations presented new demands for state subsidies and protection that once again would give them much higher pay raises than those granted other workers. The farmers claim they deserve bigger raises, to close an alleged income gap. The organizations, Norsk Bonde- og Småbrukarlag and Norges Bondelag, formally handed their latest demands on Wednesday to the […]
Glut of lamb meat won’t lower prices
February 6, 2017
Norway’s allowance of strict market regulation in its agricultural sector has suddenly left the country with a glut of its lamb meat, often hyped as being of high quality to justify high prices. Warehouses of frozen lamb are now so stuffed with lamb that even farmers and Norway’s highly regulated meat industry are worried, but consumers can’t expect […]
Food prices finally ease a bit
September 14, 2016
After a hefty increase early this past summer, retail prices for food and alcohol-free drinks declined by 1 percent from July to August, according to state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway). Food prices are still running well ahead of last year at this time, however. Prices for eggs, meat, dairy products, fruit and vegetables declined, with […]
Survey confirms consumers’ dissatisfaction
September 7, 2016
A new EU survey confirms what many who live in Norway have claimed for years: The quality and selection of fresh meat and produce in the grocery stores leaves a lot to be desired. “There are only two countries in Europe where consumers are less satisfied than we are in Norway, and that’s Bulgaria and Croatia,” Gunstein Instefjord of […]
Stronger krone and higher food prices send shoppers fleeing over the border
August 16, 2016
Norway’s currency, the krone, has suddenly regained strength in recent weeks and that, combined with a sharp rise in food prices at Norwegian grocery stores this summer, has set off a new wave of shopping across the border in Sweden. After diving along with oil prices two years ago, the Norwegian krone that had been super-strong through […]
Consumer price index up 3.2 percent
May 11, 2016
Prices have been rising in Norway, especially for food, just as the state negotiates with farmers demanding even higher prices and state support for their products. All told, Norway’s consumer price index was up 3.2 percent from the same time last year. Food prices alone rose 3.9 percent, with meat and products containing sugar leading the […]
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