Due to the weakened Norwegian krone, imported products in Norway have become more expensive. For vegetables, carrots and onions in particular have become more expensive due to increased demand across Europe. On the positive side, there are no shortages: both the food trade within Norway and across the border is fairly normal.
Sweden
The ICA makes it easier for smaller entrepreneurs to deliver to their stores. In 2017, ICA launched its own sales channel for local entrepreneurs and they are now relaxing the rules so that more local growers and producers can use them. Some things have been changed: the site has been improved, the regulations have been adjusted, so that the threshold is lower to supply to more stores and for other suppliers the number of stores to which they have to deliver has increased from 5 to 15. In this way, ICA hopes to support as many local growers and producers as possible.
Denmark
It was recently announced that the Salling Group, for supermarket chains føtex, Netto and Bilka, immediately made 500 million Danish krone available to small producers. Now the company has announced one more measure, to accommodate small producers even more, the company pays out invoices on a weekly basis during April. For the time being, this measure only applies to April, it will later be determined whether the period may be extended.
Supermarket chains føtex and Bilka have had less sales since the Corona crisis, despite the increase in food sales. This is mainly due to the decline in sales of non-food items such as clothing, from which føtex accounts for 30 percent and Bilka 50 percent of the total turnover. Netto also has fewer customers, partly due to the fact that some stores are located in shopping centers that have been closed due to the crisis. Salling Group does report an increase in the number of customers at the Bilka To Go online store.
Finally, Coop has also announced that it will accommodate tenants and producers. Some 190 tenants of Coop's retail properties and warehouses are allowed to postpone payment of the rent by three months. At the beginning of the Corona crisis, Coop had already announced that they would start paying small, local producers earlier.
Now about 378 producers have already received their payment.
Source: nationen.no, news.cision.com/se, dhblad.dk, dhblad.dk and dhblad.dk