Trade, Eggs | Norwegians hoard cheap eggs in cross-border trade

NORDBY SHOPPINGCENTER (Nettavisen): As is well known, Norway is affected by a shortage of eggs during the Easter week. In Sweden, there were still eggs to collect on Tuesday evening.

The border shops show that desperate Norwegians have been and stocked up on eggs. In the food store Maximat at the Nordby shopping center, they were already empty of eggs early Tuesday morning, Nettavisen is informed by a store employee.

At Nordby Supermarket, cheap eggs were still available on Tuesday evening. Admittedly, rationing had been introduced here with only three 20-packs of eggs per household.

The 20-packs are sold for NOK 39.90 – i.e. NOK 2 per egg.

– It is far cheaper than you get in Norway – if you get eggs in Norway at all, that is. The last time I was in Norway, the store was empty, says center manager Ståle Løvheim at Nordby Shoppingcenter to Nettavisen on Tuesday afternoon.

– Do you have enough eggs on the shelves?

– Yes, yes. We have normal eggs and Easter eggs, and enough to fill the Easter eggs with, says Løvheim.

Maximat has received new deliveries of eggs

Store manager Ole Jørgen Lind tells Nettavisen Maundy Thursday morning that Maximat received a new delivery of eggs on Wednesday, and that the shelves are now full again.

– We have multiplied our sales of eggs this Easter and we are quite sure that it is linked to empty shelves in Norway, writes Lind in an e-mail to Nettavisen.

Lind states that Maximat was empty of eggs only for a short time during Easter between Tuesday and delivery on Wednesday.

The egg crisis: Still empty shelves

Easter food in Sweden has become much more expensive

Traditional Swedish Easter foods have increased in price more than general foods in the past year. It shows to .

The average price of general foodstuffs in February was 0.9 per cent higher than in February last year. However, the price increase has been higher for most of the items on SCB’s so-called Easter table.

The prices of eggs have increased the most among the traditional “Easter goods”, the statistics show.

– The price of eggs tends to drop around Easter time, but the question is from what level it will be in that case. Over the past year, the prices of eggs have risen by almost twelve percent. Looking back three years, egg prices have increased by 48 per cent, says price statistician Carl Mårtensson at SCB in a statement.

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Salmon increased by just over 30 per cent

Compared to February last year, both salmon and herring have increased in price the most after the eggs.

– If you look back three years, both salmon and herring have increased in price by around 30 per cent. At the same time, herring is the Easter product that has fallen the most in price during the Easter month itself in the last three years, says Mårtensson.

Chocolate has risen more in price than other sweets in the past year. But ordinary sweets have also had a significant price increase in the last three years of more than 20 per cent.

– The only Easter food that has clearly dropped in price compared to last year is chicken, says Mårtensson.

Chicken has had a price drop of around five per cent in the past year. But over the past three years there has been a 25 per cent increase in the price of chicken.

Lamb meat has not had any increase in the past year. But if you go back three years in time, the price of Swedish lamb has increased by 26.5 per cent.

– Doesn’t mean anything to more expensive Easter food

Center leader Løvheim is not familiar with SCB’s Easter food statistics, and says that Nordby’s grocery stores are still able to keep prices low on traditional border goods.

– We don’t notice anything about this. Statistics are one thing, what the real prices actually are is something else entirely, says Løvheim.

The center manager can tempt Norwegians with low prices on, among other things, snacks, soft drinks and meat.

– Eggs, bacon and meat are on average about half the price compared to Norway, he says.

Løvheim says that there are traditionally fewer Norwegian shop customers at Swedish trade when it is early Easter, like this year, because he thinks more people choose Easter Mountain over cross-border trade.

Despite the early Easter, the shopping center is experiencing a large influx of Norwegian customers this year.

– It looks very good this year, even though it is early Easter. We are in a significantly better position than in both 2023 and 2022, says Løvheim.

– We are aiming for a record year that is an all-time high in kroner and øre. There has been a huge increase from last year. So far we are very pleased. We are on par with the peak years before the pandemic, he says.

The shopping center is open every day during Easter, including public holidays.

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