- I've never been to anything like it. It is completely unique. There is no meat in stock, so everything that comes out goes straight to the shelves or to chark production, says Majsan Pense, category manager at Coop Sweden, to Ekot

Axfood, which owns Willys and Hemköp, among others, has felt the lack of pork, but so far it has not left any deeper imprint in the stores

Somewhat more expensive

- Raw material prices have risen sharply, but for a customer it is just about one or a few bucks more for a package of bacon compared to a year ago. The situation has been strained but we have managed it quite well and it is far from empty in the refrigerators, says press manager Claes Salomonsson

One reason for the pork meat is the drought in the summer of 2018, which made pig feed expensive and therefore forced Swedish pig farmers to slaughter more animals than planned. Another cause is the outbreak of African swine fever in China, which has increased the country's need for imported pork.

Mats Heljeson, category manager for meat at the food giant Ica, confirms that there has been and still is a lack of certain specific bacon products, but believes that the alarm is exaggerated:

- Clearly, there are fewer pigs than usual in the Swedish stables after the drought, but we have been investing in long-term cooperation with our suppliers for several years and feel secure with the supply.

Eat in Sweden

Åsa Lannhard, meat expert at the Swedish Board of Agriculture, is also surprised by the alarm. She herself has not seen the availability of pork as particularly problematic:

- I have not encountered any shortage in the stores and I have bacon for myself in the refrigerator. Had there been a large imbalance between supply and demand, we would also have received a significantly higher price increase for pork from the slaughterhouses than the one we had seen.

Swedes' demand for domestically produced meat has increased in recent years. Swedish pigs mainly end up in Swedish stomachs. But production does not meet the need and still a quarter of the pork we eat is imported.

And if that meat has increased competition, as many EU countries with Denmark and Germany at the forefront have been able to export more and more of their pork surplus to the giant market in China, where they get better paid. And that is when there may be a shortage of Swedish store shelves.