Statistics Norway’s price statistics It shows that stores paid well for icing sugar in November. The prices for the product category “Candy Sugar and Confectionery Sugar” were more than double what they were in November and December last year.
In recent years, there has been a sharp drop in sugar prices as Christmas approaches and cake baking begins.
Store chains compete fiercely on the prices of typical Christmas items, but this year apparently this price war over icing sugar isn’t happening in November.
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Then it started
Now there are several signs that it has finally begun.
– The main reason for the differences in domestic sugar prices from November last year to November this year is that the price war on domestic sugar started earlier last year. Melis costs 9.90 extra today, so it is also part of the price war this year, Simen Kjønnås Thorsen, communications consultant at Coop Norge, tells NTB.
He emphasized that the price of sugar products has gone up. In addition, icing sugar is not produced in Norway, so the weak krone exchange rate also contributes to increased costs.
– Artificially low prices
Julie Johnson, purchasing and category director for “Family and Breakfast” at Rema 1000, confirms that icing sugar prices are now very high in December compared to last year and the year before.
He may also report a price of NOK 9.90 per package for Rema 1000, the same as last year.
Statistics Norway’s statistics for December are not yet ready.
– We reduced the price of powdered sugar in November and December last year, which artificially kept the price low. The biggest part of our costs is the cost of goods, so when suppliers raise prices for us, unfortunately the prices in the store also increase, says Johnson.
He asserts that since 1979 their margins have been fixed at 3 to 4 percent.
– People make mistakes
20 percent higher for the entire year
It should also be noted that the price differentials for icing sugar have accelerated primarily in November. Looking at the average for the first 11 months of the year, prices were roughly 20 percent higher than the same period last year.
The figures are based on the reference value set in Norway’s price statistics 2015.
In November this year, its price was 172 percent of the reference value. Last year it was 87.3 percent in November and 75.4 percent in December.
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