Eurostat stressed in its latest report that price levels for food, beverages and tobacco vary considerably across the 37 European countries that were the focus of its study – 28 EU members, 3 EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) and 5 candidate countries ( Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Turkey). Switzerland has Europe's most expensive food and drinks. It is followed by Iceland, Norway and Denmark. In contrast, and not surprisingly countries with weaker currencies compared to the Euro including Macedonia, Albania and Serbia were all found to have the lowest prices. More precisely, and amongst all 37 countries Denmark shows the highest price levels for bread and cereals and Switzerland has the highest price levels for meat and fish, while Norway has the highest prices for dairy products. In fact, these statistics only confirm what most people have been realizing for themselves when food purchasing. Certainly, the costs generated by transport for countries such as Iceland can explain higher prices for food and drinks. But in other countries such as Switzerland it is rather a lack of competition in some sectors of the economy which is the main cause for excessively high prices. Pending progress on this issue, consumers who live close to the borders do their shopping abroad.

Mo Tailland / 7th July 2017