Norwegians at the grocery store have a problem: No eggs!
Solution? Flock over the border. Nab eggs from Sweden.
On Thursday, Norwegian news outlet Nettavisen reported that a shopping center near Strömstad, Sweden, was filled with “desperate” Norwegians trying to stock up on eggs.
The center’s Maxi-Mat food store ran out of eggs on Tuesday. The nearby Nordby Supermarket limited the number of cartons each customer could buy. No more than three 20-packs were allowed per household.
The Swedish eggs are “far cheaper than you get in Norway,” says Ståle Løvheim, the head of the Nordby shopping center. “If you can get eggs in Norway at all, that is.”
A pack of 20 eggs in Sweden sells for a price equivalent to 39.90 Norwegian kroner. That’s $3.70 in U.S. dollars. In Norway, the price is about 30 percent more. That’s closer to $4.81.
How did Norway get into such a scrambled mess? People worried chickens there would lay too many eggs to sell. Officials gave farmers money to produce fewer eggs. Then bird flu hit. Birds with the sickness had to be killed. Suddenly, there were far from enough eggs to go around.
Egg prices are at near-historic highs in many parts of the world. Why? Bird flu is a big reason. The costs to run a farm are also rising. Farmers need to raise prices.
Food is particularly costly in Norway. It is one of the most expensive countries to live in. High taxes make food shopping hard.
So for many Norwegians, shopping over the border is nothing new. Why not go where food is cheaper and taxes are lower? Swedish store owners benefit from all the new customers. For them, high taxes in Norway are very good for business.
Do you dye eggs or eat deviled eggs around Easter? Good eggs are just one of the ways God provides for people. Jesus even talks about them in Luke 11: “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” (verses 11-12) He used those examples to explain how God is an even better Father than the best fathers on Earth.
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. — Luke 11:9
