Last Tuesday, Jørgen Foss, President of the National Association for the Overweight (LFO), and Jan Paul Bjørkøy, manager of the retailer Kiwi, signed a partnership with the goal of improving public health and help tackle obesity in Norway, which costs the country about 20 billion crowns per year (2.39 billion Euro).
Already In 2007, Kiwi cut fruit and vegetable prices; a measure it had followed up in recent times with the reduction of prices of key products.
Bjørkøy says that Kiwi wants to make more room for healthy products at low prices and to promote their sale. He shows a report revealing that price cuts increased fruit and vegetable sales by 23.2% in 2007.
Foss has asked Kiwi to make even greater efforts, including advertising against unhealthy products targeted especially at young people.
Challenging Rema 1000 and Coop
The President of LFO also urged other major grocery chains to participate in what he himself describes as a community effort for better health.
"Coop wants to make it easier for customers to choose healthy products, and we are open to discuss solutions and cooperation deals to contribute to improving public health," says Harald Kristiansen, Communications Manager at Coop.
Kristiansen says that Coop is already making efforts to make it easier for customers to choose healthy. There have been no price cuts, but other measures to influence purchasing choices.
"Coop has regular promotional campaigns for all fruits and vegetables; we have also reduced the use of palm oil and we are still working on eliminating saturated fats, salt and sugar from our products," says Kristiansen.
For his part, the Communications Director at Rema 1000, Mette Fossum Beyer, highlighted that "the company, represented, among others, by its owner, Ole Robert Reitan, already takes part, together with other chains, in a special health committee appointed by the Minister of Health."
