Bread and milk is the local news today. Though the government meeting at Harpsund has come and gone, the country air clearly didn’t inspire any new ideas. Hanif Bali’s remarks are just tweets in a teacup, and that Sweden builds the most expensive biildings in the EU isn’t even remotely news. Sweden always equates money and quality, so spending more is directly translated to mean better buildings. Anyone who disputes that is reflexively of very dubious character.
Millk and bread it is. According to Omni news today, Swedish farmers increased their production of organic milk by 12% in the past year. Demand wasn’t quite at that level, so now there’s a surplus. Dagens industri (di.se) traces the impulses behind the extra milk: dairies upped the price they paid farmers for organic milk in 2016, causing milk farmers with an eye on the bottom line to increase their production of the product customers demanded. All these savvy farmers caused an overproduction. Supply, meet demand. Nothing new in other words.
In a similar vein, Swedish grain farmers are expecting one of the best seasons in years. Grain production is looking at a 10% increase over the average, which could mean cheaper bread prices at the supermarket, and even, hold on to your hats, perhaps cheaper fika bread prices! But it’s still weather dependent so don’t start making plans – if the rest of August is rainy, the quality of the grain could be lessened, making the grain better snacked on by farm animals than humans. Keep your eye on those clouds before making coffee dates.
Unfortunately for veggie lovers, none of the above news events will have any effect on the price of greens. Avocado prices have gone up by 40%, noted by avocado lovers. But being sufficient in milk and grain isn’t a bad thing for any country, and as for politics, there are worse things than the price of milk.