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Meat consumption is falling in Sweden, but production is on the rise

People in Sweden are eating less meat than they have done for ten years, according to new figures from the Swedish Board of Agriculture.

Published: 6 March 2019 07:52 CET

Meat consumption is falling in Sweden, but production is on the rise

Are meatballs and sausages falling out of favour? Photo: Anders Wiklund / SCANPIX

In 2018, meat consumption in Sweden fell for the second year in a row. On average, people ate 83.5 kilograms of meat that year, which is 2.2 kilograms less than in 2017.

And the decline in meat-eating is likely to continue, experts believe.

“Sometimes you can see that things like illnesses and financial crises have affected meat consumption in the short term, but now there are several trends coinciding which mean that it's probably going to continue falling,” explained Åsa Lannhardt, an agripolitical commissioner at the Board of Agriculture, speaking to SVT Nyheter.

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However, production of Swedish meat, and red meat in particular, has increased over the past 12 months.

Production of beef, pork and lamb all increased by between 3.6 and 6.5 percent, while poultry production fell by 1.5 percent.

This means that the proportion of Swedish meat eaten in Sweden rose and the proportion of imported meat fell, thanks to a combination of demand, stable prices for producers, and a growing interest in locally farmed and sustainable food.

It was only the second consecutive row that meat imports fell, after a steady increase since Sweden entered the European Union.

READ ALSO: Ten of the best restaurants for vegetarian food in Stockholm

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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.

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