The agency's review of the food industry is at an early stage, but already in the initial investigation, the agency has seen "indications" that indicate a lack of competition.
"This is partly due to the fact that it is difficult with new store openings and that we have a very concentrated grocery market in Sweden," says Leif Nordqvist, who is coordinating project manager for the review.
Concentrated market
The authority has also seen a lack of competition in the egg chain. Egg prices have increased more than can be justified by the purchase price at packing and grocery stores.
"We started looking at eggs because egg producers wondered where the money went. We went through all the stages carefully and have been able to answer that question. As we have a concentrated market, this has led to uncertainty about what things actually cost. This means that some players charge unjustifiably high prices that do not benefit egg farmers," says Susanna Sällström Matthews, expert economist at the Swedish Competition Authority.
Chicken in line
In the next step, other foods will be examined in the same way, including chicken, as similar price increases have been seen there. Cooking oil, bread and cheese are other foods that should be visible at all stages. It is likely that the review will show similar patterns there as well, Sällström Matthews believes.
"We are interested to see if this is a general pattern, but it seems reasonable. Then I would like to point out that there are very big differences. We have seen that there are price increases that are not justified, then there are increases that are justified. It varies greatly what the players have to pay in purchase price, but some take advantage of the fact that the competitor has a high price even if they themselves bought in a surplus at a low price.