Sweden
Swedish consumers choose local and online Scandinavian countries are mostly dependent on the import of fruit and vegetables, yet the domestic production has a good position on the market, although growers have to choose varieties that aren’t competing with imported products. Swedish consumers have also discovered buying groceries online. Online sales are rapidly growing, and fruit and vegetables are a part of this trend.
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f you were to pick Sweden up and flip it around so that the northern-most tip would point southwards, you’d be very close to Rome. This is a much-heard comparison used by Swedish traders to explain the challenges they face within their country. The enormous distance is reflected, for instance, in transport costs necessary to reach supermarkets in the north of the country. Bananas for supermarkets in the north aren’t fully ripened either. During the two-day transport, the fruit continues ripening, Johan Andersson from Kalundbladh explains. “MECCA OF FRESH PRODUCE” It’s therefore good that half of the ten million inhabitants can be found in the south of the country. That’s also where most of
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AGF Primeur • Special Edition Fruit Logistica • 2018
the large cities are. Near the west coast of the country, at the level of Copenhagen and the Kattegat, the fruit and vegetable centre of the country can be found. “The Mecca of fresh produce,” according to one Swedish trader. For the import, the traders have a network within Europe. Many importers have direct lines to Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium. Products from the Southern Hemisphere are usually imported via the Netherlands. The port of Helsingborg, the second port in the country, annually handles about 280,000 TEU of seaborne freight, and another 170,000 TEU of land freight. For the slightly more northern port of Gothenburg, no exact figures are available, but on its website, the largest port of the country
claims to handle 60 per cent of container transport.
LOCAL PRODUCT ON THE RISE Despite the Scandinavian climate, with its mild summers, cold nights and a winter that becomes darker the further north you go, there are growers who brave the elements and grow fruit and vegetables. The northern-most growers can be found around the polar circle, but most of the production can be found in the south. These local products are very popular. “Local is the new organic,” says Lars Persson of the cooperative SydGrönt. Demand for local products is quickly increasing. This is seen in, for example, the investments made by the cooperative in the storage of cabbage. Because of this, cabbage can be supplied year-round. “Before this, cabbage was imported from Germany, but a large supermarket chain wants domestic cabbage,” Lars explains.
SydGrönt is one of the largest cooperatives in the country, and markets the lion’s share of the products based on contracts. The producers’ organisation was founded 25 years ago, after the bankruptcy of the