Potatoes, Price increase | Reacts strongly: Notice of potato price of NOK 100 per kilo

– Overall, turnover of potatoes will decrease, because the price will be high. Then we choose other products, says Ivar Gaasland, associate professor at the Department of Social Economics at BI.

This year, much higher tariffs are being introduced for potatoes and four other vegetables.

Increased customs duty will make it far more expensive to import these vegetables.

Gaasland believes that a sharp increase in customs duties for imports from abroad will lead to higher prices and thus lower demand.

– As I said, the price of fruit and vegetables is already quite high in Norway, says Gaasland.

How much more expensive?

NRK has spoken to vegetable importer Trygve Tønjum.

He has calculated how much new potatoes from Spain will increase in price. Today, the Spanish new potatoes cost around NOK 40 per kilo in a supermarket. With the customs duty that kicks in in the autumn, the price will be NOK 104.50 per kilo, writes NRK.

Lene Westgaard-Halle is the Conservative Party’s parliamentary leader on agriculture. On “Political Quarter” on Tuesday morning, she comes out hard against the government and the Center Party for setting up the toll. She believes the foreign potatoes will become so expensive that no one will be able to afford to buy them anymore.

– Of course it will be more expensive. That is the whole point of increasing the customs duty. The Center Party has wanted more expensive food products for a long time, and they have succeeded in that, says Westgaard-Halle.

Disagree in prediction

There are different views on what price effect the new import duty will have.

On Politisk kvarter, Willfred Nordluns (Sp) defends the decision. He is chairman of the business committee at the Storting.

Willfred Nordluns argues that an increased customs duty will strengthen Norwegian food production.

– Norway is fairly self-sufficient in potatoes. This means that the customs duty is of minimal importance in itself. But Norwegian potato producers will be able to compete with foreign countries where production costs are lower than we have in Norway, says Nordlund in the NRK studio.

Already today, almost 90 per cent of the potatoes sold in supermarkets are Norwegian-produced. But in the spring, before the season has started in the potato fields in this country, Norway usually imports new potatoes.

– Eat more potatoes

The idea of ​​strengthened customs protection is to strengthen Norwegian potato production. There are also many farmers who want to be paid better for their goods. Agriculture and Food Minister Geir Pollestad (Sp) tells NRK.

– Do you live with higher prices? asks NRK’s ​​reporter.

– It’s like that the smartest thing people do if they want to keep their household budget down is to eat more potatoes.

If the price reaches a certain level, the authorities open up imports from abroad.

– And if there are few goods in the store, we will open for imports, says Pollestad to NRK.

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