Daily Food Exchange, Kiwi | Joseph no longer trades in Kiwi:

Oslo Center: (Nettavisen)

From the Kiwi entrance in Brugata, you can explore the Nord Dagligvare vegetable store. There is an abundance of vegetables here at street level.

Electronic price tags have been replaced by handwritten stickers. Outside the greengrocer, customers are lured in by clementines at NOK 19.90 a kilo.

Quality is the most important

Joseph Sommer usually comes from far away to buy vegetables and fruits at reasonable prices. He lives on the Nisöden Peninsula, about 5 miles from Oslo. Today I took a chance after a night shift in Oslo.

Save big money by shopping here. He says that many goods are half the price of a kiwi.

Sumer is originally from Israel. Thought the selection, quality and price beat the Kiwi’s across the street.

– Everything is new here. Just take a watermelon. Somer says I’m from the Middle East and know how it should taste, and stresses that he’s well used to the large selection and quality from the vegetable markets in his home country.

Nettavisen recently wrote about weather challenges in Spain and Morocco affecting the cultivation of peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce.

The weather leads to higher prices of vegetables: – Demands

Weather challenges also affect the vegetables sold in Dagligvare Nord. However, vegetables are sold at prices much lower than those of kiwi.

goods	kiwi	vegetables north	The difference is in krone	difference ratio
Green paprika 1 kg	89.9	54.9	35	63.75%
Broccoli	18.9	12.9	6	46.51%
Red paprika 1 kilo	89.9	64.9	25	38.52%
cauliflower	32.9	24.9	8	32.13%
Tomatoes 1 kg, loose weight	49.9	39.9	10	25.06%
Cherry tomatoes	79.8	109.9	−30.1	−27.39%

the total	361.3	307.4	53.9

Price checked on 01.03.23 in Oslo.

At the end of January, the low-priced Kiwi, Rema 1000 and Extra chains raised the price of Brokolli by 124 percent – from 8.90 to 19.90. Since then, only the popular vegetables and peppers have continued to new price hikes.

All-out war on Rima’s goods: – It’s not possible. I can hardly breathe

Wholesaler twice a month

After Sommer strikes up a conversation with the people who work at the greengrocer, he goes to the checkout station. The catch of the day was three big sacks full of potatoes, parsley, cilantro, carrots, red peppers and lots of fruit.

The shopping trip is one of two trips he makes each month to the vegetable store in Oslo.

“Quality is important,” Sommer says, showing a large bag of lychee fruit. You don’t get that quality at Bama, he says.

Pia Gulbrandsen is the Director of Communications at the Bama Group.

– We are involved in all parts of production and transportation to achieve the highest possible quality of products. Bama ensures preventive measures in producers, ensuring awareness of, among other things, plant protection, irrigation water, cold chain and hygiene. In addition, we have full traceability of the products we sell, and we track and take action against food waste in stores, she says.

Britain had a vegetable crisis

This is how the kiwi responds:

– Bama is our supplier of fruits and vegetables, and they have to buy in large quantities of the highest quality, which will be taken to all Kiwi stores across the country. There are great demands that we have consistent and good product quality. Then, for example, we can’t buy just one of the cheapest cucumbers or grapes, because we don’t know if they’re necessarily of good quality in the large quantities we need, says Kiwi communications consultant Nora Mael Helgesen.

She points out that they have a 15 percent Trumpf bonus on all fresh fruits and vegetables.

– There are sometimes significant price fluctuations from week to week, often daily, for fruits and vegetables. Spreads can come from offerings, differences in quality, customs rates, purchasing lots and importing countries, she says.