The case in summary Systembolaget, the Swedish alcohol monopoly, refuses to state how much they sell in the shops on the border with Norway. This has caused frustration in the Norwegian alcohol industry, which believes it is unsustainable. Systembolaget explains the secrecy by saying that it can make it easier for suppliers to put pressure on them if they provide detailed information about sales in individual stores. NHO Mat og Drikke believes that it would be easier to manage alcohol policy in Norway if there were more accurate figures for how much of the sales flow over the border. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. At Systembolaget in Strömstad, there is an influx of customers. In the square outside there are almost only Norwegian-registered cars. The store here is as big as the biggest ones in Stockholm and Gothenburg, but the town is tiny. The explanation is Norwegian. Store manager Alexander Johansson confirms that it is mostly Norwegians who shop here. The Norwegians’ man in Systembolaget. Store manager Alexander Johansson in Strömstad. Photo: Stein Ove Korneliussen / news – There are a few thousand every single day, he says. And the explanation is simple – here Norwegians can buy alcoholic products at a price that is far below what the Vinmonopolet at home can offer. But exactly how much we buy, Systembolaget does not want to reveal. It bothers the trade union here at home. The price difference for wine, spirits and beer can be up to 40 per cent between Norway and Sweden. Photo: Christian Nygaard-Monsen / news Driving from Asker to Strömstad Jørgen Orlin is on his way out of the store with goods. He has driven all the way from Asker west of Oslo to trade across the border. The trip is 15 miles each way. – Isn’t it a long drive? – Yes, but it’s worth it. I shop here once a month, both food, alcohol and other goods. I save up to half the price compared to at home, he says. Jørgen Orlin makes the trip from Asker to Strömstad once a month, and believes that it offers big savings. Photo: Christian Nygaard-Monsen / news Examples show that individual items of wine, spirits and beer cost from 24 to 39 per cent less at Systembolaget than at Vinmonopolet. The reason is that the Swedish alcohol taxes are far lower than the Norwegian ones. And the difference will increase from the new year, at least for beer and wine. From 1 January 2024, the Norwegian authorities will increase the alcohol tax by almost 4 per cent. While the Swedes increase the tax on beer and wine by around 7 per cent. But the alcohol tax, or alcohol tax as it is called there, only increases by 1 percent. This means that the price difference will increase most on the goods with the strongest alcohol content. Systembolaget’s largest store in Strömstad was expanded during the pandemic, and is now as large as stores in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Photo: Ola Hana / news Keeping sales figures secret What annoys the Norwegian alcohol industry the most is that Systembolaget does not release detailed sales figures from cross-border stores. Ingunn Jordheim is general secretary of the Wine and spirits suppliers’ association. – Sales in this store are kept secret. We don’t get to know how much is traded here, even though we have been asking for it for years, she says. Ingunn Jordheim of the Wine and Spirit Producers’ Association has been requesting figures for alcohol sales at the border for years. Photo: news Systembolaget will also not state how much is sold in the border municipalities alone, only for the entire region. For Strömstad, this means that the figures merge with the entire coast, including the big city of Gothenburg. – It is a shame that they do not provide more detailed turnover figures, as Vinmonopolet does, says Petter Haas Brubakk, managing director of NHO Mat og Drikke. Could influence alcohol policy Strömstad municipality alone accounts for close to half of Norwegians’ cross-border trade. The sale of alcohol products is believed to make up between 10 and 20 per cent of the total cross-border trade. The leakage of alcohol to Sweden is often used as an argument for lowering alcohol taxes here at home, but it becomes unmanageable as long as there are no exact figures. Petter Haas Brubakk at NHO Mat og Drikke does not understand why Systembolaget is keeping the sales figures secret. Photo: news – All state monopolies should be open about their sales figures. It is difficult to see Systembolaget’s motive for keeping the figures secret, says Brubakk. He believes that it would be easier to manage alcohol policy here at home, if you had more accurate figures for how much of the sales flow over the border. Blame it on competition Systembolaget explains the secrecy by saying that it can make it easier for suppliers to put pressure on them if they provide detailed information about sales in individual stores. Teodor Almqvist responds from the press department of Systembolaget. – We do not want to share statistics that could serve the interests of individual suppliers and promote marketing towards individual stores. Since most Swedish municipalities only have one shop, we have set the limit for statistics at county level. They refer to a recent report from the Swedish Centralförbundet för alkohol- och narkotuupplysning (CAN), which revealed the sale of alcohol in the border municipalities. Here it says that Norwegians bought alcoholic products equivalent to 2 million liters of pure alcohol in cross-border trade in 2022. This amounts to approximately 3.5 per cent of Systembolaget’s total turnover that year. This is a clear decrease from 2019, the year before the pandemic, when the Norwegian share of sales was 5.3 per cent.
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Will not provide figures for cross-border trade – news Østfold – Local news, TV and radio
