Norway's Agricultural Minister Goes to the Grocery Store

Guess what, Mr. Pollestad 'discovers' how expensive food has become and marvels at the reasons why; no worries, NRK's 'journos' don't ask him, hence the reader is none the wiser

Sigh.

Today, at the grocery store, no milk was available as none had been delivered. Lots of empty shelves, with prices sky-high (regular coffee is approx. 10% more expensive than last month), but don’t expect anything from anyone.

Below, I’ll present Exhibit A, Norway’s Agricultural Minister, who pretends to understand what happens. You be the judge.

Translation and emphases mine, as are the bottom lines.

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Tacos For the Family Cost Over NOK 500 [US$ 50]

‘Tacos are quite expensive, but the agricultural budget will result in lower prices in Norway’, says the Minister of Agriculture.

By Anders Eidesvik and Karoline Johannessen Litland, NRK, 15 July 2024 [source]

Just an ordinary taco.

Or in other words, ordinary Norwegian tacos.

Agricultural and Food Minister Geir Pollestad (Socialist Party) in a grocery while buying taco, Norwegian style.

That was on the menu when NRK joined the Norwegian Minister of Agriculture and Food, Geir Pollestad (Sp), on a trip to the grocery store.

The aim was to discuss high food prices and agricultural policy, and the minister is concerned about several things when he goes shopping:

I’m looking out for good food, I’m keen to choose Norwegian products. But I’m also concerned about the price of what I buy.

Norwegian prices are rising faster

Last week, NRK reported on how Norwegian-produced goods, such as potatoes, eggs, and salmon, have risen sharply in price over the past year.

For example, yellow onions cost NOK 40 [approx. US$ 4] per kilo, while new potatoes are well over NOK 35 per kilo.

[NRK] What do you think about the high prices?

[Pollestad] It’s our aim to keep prices down. At the same time, it's important that farmers get paid for the work they do [nice try, but these two things, while important, leave out who ‘regulates’ everything in-between: the gov’t, i.e., Mr. Pollestad].

He also emphasises self-sufficiency in the event of crises and war as an important priority for the government [now they’re all ‘re-discovering’ that, I wonder why…].

[Pollestad] The rise in food prices has been at least as high for imported goods as for Norwegian goods [so, pray tell, what is the gov’t doing if it wouldn’t matter if we’re talking domestic or imported food?]. And price growth [i.e., inflation] in many countries has been higher than it has been here in Norway.

[NRK] However, food price inflation in the EU countries over the past year has been 0.7%. In Norway, price growth [see, in Norway, we’re experiencing price growth, not food price inflation] has been 4.9%.

[Pollestad] Yes, and this is due to the fact that when price growth came, it was much lower in Norway and significantly higher in other countries [please re-read the preceding paragraph, which is the ‘question’ tied to this ‘answer’]. So there’s probably a backlog here.

Pollestad believes [good for him] that the agricultural agreement results in lower prices in Norway because part of the increase in farmers’ costs is covered by the national budget [maybe so, but is his ‘belief’ true?].

[Pollestad] Many people think that the agricultural agreement is about farmers, but it’s just as much about consumers.

Shielded From the Rest of Europe

Ivar Pettersen, a food researcher at Alo-Analyse, says that food prices are significantly higher in Norway than in other countries: ‘That’s just politics’, he says, adding:

But it is true that we would have had a higher price increase if the government had not increased the framework for subsidies to the agricultural programme.

He explains that the Norwegian model, with import protection and support for agriculture via the national budget [both supremely illegal under EU ‘law’], helps to shield Norwegian agriculture from price fluctuations from abroad.

This helps to explain, for example, why prices rose more abroad than in Norway when the war in Ukraine broke out in 2022.

But in the same way that we are shielded from price rises, we are also shielded from price falls. When international prices fall, the impact is much greater in other countries than in Norway.

He believes that price growth [read: inflation] in Norway is also fuelled by high wage growth [lolcatz] and agricultural subsidies.

Expensive Tacos

Back to the grocery store.

It was a rather expensive shopping trip for Pollestad: NOK 529 [well over US$ 50] for tacos for a family of five: ‘Tacos are quite expensive. You need quite a lot of “stuff”’, he says.

If you were to eat a taco like that every day, it would cost NOK 3,500 a week.

Yes, I have a great deal of understanding for those who feel that the prices of everything have increased, and that’s why it's important to get both interest rates and inflation down. The aim is for people to be better able to afford things.

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Bottom Lines

Oh my, something has to be done about morons ‘doing’ journalism and politics.

Inflation is a hidden tax, there’s nothing ‘miraculous’ or ‘otherworldly’ about it; if central banks ‘print’ more currency units, the relative value of any one unit of currency goes down. Hence ‘price growth’, which is, of course, the fault of anyone but the Norwegian Central Bank.

It’s quite simple and easy to understand, but somehow the brainiacs in power (sic) don’t seem to understand this. Norway’s currency ‘floats’, and unlike, say, the Danish crown (which is pegged to the Euro) or the slightly less tied Swedish currency, the Norwegian crown ‘floats’. Any increase in the quantity of something will decrease its price, or worth. Hence, ‘price growth’ is, on a. secondary plane, related to higher wages (all due to collective bargaining overseen by Big Gov’t, Big Business, and Big Labour) and higher agricultural subsidies. Replace ‘Norway’ with your western country, and there you go. Thank me later.

I admit to have taken out one piece from the original piece: an info box ‘splainin’ price growth (sic) across selected foodstuffs. In the original piece, it was inserted between the following paragraphs:

[NRK] However, food price inflation in the EU countries over the past year has been 0.7%. In Norway, price growth [see, in Norway, we’re experiencing price growth, not food price inflation] has been 4.9%.

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[INFOBOX] This is How Prices have Changed:

Here are the price changes on a number of product groups:

• Dry goods: rice 10.9%, flour 3.1%, pasta 0.7%, ready-made baking stuff 4.9%.

• Baked goods: bread 6%, buns 7.4%, cookies 10.5%, sausage and burger buns 6.2%.

• Meat: sausages 8.6%, pork 5.3%, lamb and goat meat 5.6%, poultry 4%, beef and veal 5.3%.

• Fish: fresh cod 5.6%, frozen cod 4.9%, fresh salmon and trout 1.9%, frozen salmon and trout 14.7%, frozen shellfish 5.1%, fried seafood with breadcrumbs 7.3%.

• Dairy: light milk 5.2%, yoghurt 5.1%, cheese 7.4%, cream 6.2%, sour cream 5.6%.

• Butter and oils: butter 11.5%, olive oil 26.7%, margarine and other oils from the plant kingdom 3.8%.

• Eggs: 11.8%.

• Fruit: bananas 5%, apples 4.4%, pears 3.2%, fresh berries 6.6%, melons 13.5%.

• Vegetables: root vegetables 19.4%, cabbage 2.2%, cucumber 4.9%, tomatoes 4.1%, frozen vegetables 9.8%, potatoes 28.7% [!!!].

• Sweet goods: sugar 18.6%, jam 2.6%, chocolate spread 5.7%, cooking chocolate 20.5%.

• Soft drinks and juices: soft drinks 7.8%, juices and nectars 13.2%, juices 6%.

Source: Statistics Norway [END INFOBOX]

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[Pollestad] Yes, and this is due to the fact that when price growth came, it was much lower in Norway and significantly higher in other countries [please re-read the preceding paragraph, which is the ‘question’ tied to this ‘answer’]. So there’s probably a backlog here.

If you’d ask me, that infobox was inserted on purpose to make people read over the stupid crap said by the Agricultural Minister. If it was stupidity on part of the ‘journos’, well, that won’t make this ‘better’.

I do wonder how much longer the heavily indebted Norwegian population can sustain this kind of inflationary pressures. At some point, something will have to give.

Also, it’s not about Norway, because we’re seeing that kind of pressure building everywhere we look.

In the end, something will give, and it’s a question of when, not if.