Sweden the Food Valley

Sweden is one of the most innovative countries and a country in which it’s easy to start and run companies. Sweden was “early to digitalize,” citing a government-subsidized program for home computers in the 1990s that spread IT-competence to the whole population. Swedish consumers are demanding and open minded to new ideas and the composition of the population is globally representative. Often Sweden is used as test market for international food and beverage brands.

Companies are characterized by having a flat organizational hierarchy combined with a high level of education and a system where company taxation first applies when gains are realized. Swedes invest almost half of their money in equities and other financial instruments. As a result, there are also considerably more stock market flotations, because young Swedish growth companies see the opportunities that the capital market offers, they do not shy away from the stock market.

Sweden has a tradition for innovation and you see it today not only in the food and drink sector itself with a lot of new innovative food brands like Nicks, Oatly, Proteinella, Vitamin Well but also new ideas built around the food sector like Food waste companies Karma, Whywaste or even Food diet systems like Lifesum or Saveggy, a startup with a patent pending food-safe spray that extends the shelf-life of vegetables, or Epicdenter a rice-sized microchip that sits under the skin to take contactless payments, or Matsmart that saves perfectly good food from being thrown away.

In fact the development is speeded up by even more capital going into the industry and potentially future global Nestlé´s and Unilevers are being built rapidly like the Humble Group a young, dynamic and innovative FMCG group. The group consists of +20 business companies that operate in fast-growing segments such as sugar reduction, functional food and sustainable beauty and health. The company is listed on NASDAQ First North based in Stockholm.

The country has also been a frontrunner in the world when it comes to health and sustainability regulations in food and agriculture, which has led to one of the most sustainable food systems in the world. With the megatrend of sustainability accelerating, in combination with a highly technical skilled community, Sweden is well positioned to export food products, solutions and innovative techniques. The interesting question is how can a highly taxed and over regulated society with a large public sector and very expensive welfare state be the centre of food tech and innovative food and beverage brands. Could it be that it is not because of but due to this that Sweden has the third highest startup rate in the world, behind Turkey and Spain ? Stockholm is second only to Silicon Valley in terms of unicorns – startups valued at above $1 billion and Sweden ranks second in the global Innovation Index 2021 after Switzerland but before United States that is rated 3.

Many small food startups are already in an early stage taking the big global view and are trying to attract external private capital for growth and you already see several so far unknown brands making their way into export. In a way brands like IKEA and H&M have already shown the way. Today there are not just a few but hundreds of ambitious Swedish companies: a lot of these are food and drink companies following the same pattern and it seems like the financial back-up is in place for further expansion.