Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

FOOD AND DRINK

World gets stronger taste for Swedish sweet treats

Food and drink account for an increasing share of Swedish exports, with France and the US among the countries gobbling up a growing number of cakes, breads and pastries from the Nordic nation.

Published: 15 April 2015 15:08 CEST

World gets stronger taste for Swedish sweet treats

Swedish crispbread is selling like hotcakes. Photo: Janus Langhorn/Image Bank Sweden

Swedish food and drink exports grew to a total of 70 billion kronor ($7.9 million) in 2014, according to a new report by Swedish industry body the Food Federation (Livsmedelsföretagen), which predicts that the figure could grow to 150 billion by 2025.

"We are skilled in making products such as milk, margarine, bread, coffee and buns and have a long tradition of producing them. Spirits are the crown jewel of our export industry," the federation's Marie Söderqvist told the TT news agency on Wednesday.

According to Söderqvist, France and the US are the current core customers outside of Scandinavia, with crisp bread, cakes and buns among the best selling exports, alongside alcohol.

"To France, which is a country many associate with croissants and pastries, we are importing a lot of Swedish bread. I think that is quite fascinating. It shows that we can compete even in the most demanding markets," said Söderqvist.

She added that China is the next place where Sweden is hoping to make an impact, although this involves crossing political and bureaucratic hurdles.

"The authorities and politicians must do the first part of the job," she said.

Söderqvist believes that there is also money to be made from increased sales of Swedish pork, peas and Daim cakes, made from fragments of Daim bars, the globally famous Swedish sweet snack that first launched in Stockholm in the 1950s.

She is calling on the Swedish government and other authorities to do more to promote the sale of Swedish produce abroad.

Since the late 1990s, food has doubled its share of total Swedish exports – albeit from a low base – rising from about three percent to just over six percent in 2015.

OPINION: Are tips in Sweden becoming the norm?

The Local’s guide to tipping in Sweden is clear: tip for good service if you want to, but don’t feel the pressure: where servers in the US, for instance, rely on tips to live, waiters in Sweden have collectively bargained salaries with long vacations and generous benefits.

SEE ALSO: What’s the tipping etiquette in Sweden?

But there are signs that this is changing, and the change is being accelerated by card machines. Now, many machines offer three preset gratuity percentages, usually starting with five percent and going up to fifteen or twenty. Previously they just asked the customer to fill in the total amount they wanted to pay.

This subtle change to a user interface sends a not-so-subtle message to customers: that tipping is expected and that most people are probably doing it. The button for not tipping is either a large-lettered ‘No Tip’ or a more subtle ‘Fortsätt’ or ‘Continue’ (it turns out you can continue without selecting a tip amount, but it’s not immediately clear to the user).

I’ll confess, when I was first presented with this I was mildly irked: I usually tip if I’ve had table service, but waiting staff are treated as professionals and paid properly, guaranteed by deals with unions; menu prices are correspondingly high. The tip was a genuine token of appreciation.

But when I tweeted something to this effect (a tweet that went strangely viral), the responses I got made me think. Many people pointed out that the restaurant trade in Sweden is under enormous pressure, with rising costs, the after-effects of Covid and difficulties recruiting. And as Sweden has become more cosmopolitain, adding ten percent to the bill comes naturally to many.

Boulebar, a restaurant and bar chain with branches around Sweden and Denmark, had a longstanding policy of not accepting tips at all, reasoning that they were outdated and put diners in an uncomfortable position. But in 2021 CEO Henrik Kruse decided to change tack:

“It was a purely financial decision. We were under pressure due to Covid, and we had to keep wages down, so bringing back tips was the solution,” he said, adding that he has a collective agreement and staff also get a union bargained salary, before tips.

Yet for Kruse the new machines, with their pre-set tipping percentages, take things too far:

“We don’t use it, because it makes it even clearer that you’re asking for money. The guest should feel free not to tip. It’s more important for us that the guest feels free to tell people they’re satisfied.”

But for those restaurants that have adopted the new interfaces, the effect has been dramatic. Card processing company Kassacentralen, which was one of the first to launch this feature in Sweden, told Svenska Dagbladet this week that the feature had led to tips for the average establishment doubling, with some places seeing them rise six-fold.

Even unions are relaxed about tipping these days, perhaps understanding that they’re a significant extra income for their members. Union representatives have often in the past spoken out against tipping, arguing that the practice is demeaning to staff and that tips were spread unevenly, with staff in cafés or fast food joints getting nothing at all. But when I called the Swedish Hotel and Restaurant Union (HRF), a spokesman said that the union had no view on the practice, and it was a matter for staff, business owners and customers to decide.

So is tipping now expected in Sweden? The old advice probably still stands; waiters are still not as reliant on tips as staff in many other countries, so a lavish tip is not necessary. But as Swedes start to tip more generously, you might stick out if you leave nothing at all.

Url copied to clipboard!