The S Group has slashed the price of home-grown cucumbers by 41 per cent, according to Helsingin Sanomat.
The S Group has announced that it will reduce the prices of almost 900 common grocery items, including those of more than 100 home-grown vegetables, at S-markets, Prisma hypermarkets, and Alepa and Sale corner shops.
The prices of home-grown cucumbers, for example, will drop by 41 per cent and those of home-grown apples, potatoes and tomatoes by roughly 20 per cent, according to Helsingin Sanomat. The reductions will to some extent vary based on the shop in question.
“Customers have expressed their hopes that we would reduce vegetable prices since the beginning of our price reduction campaign,” Taavi Heikkilä, the chief executive of SOK, reveals in a press release.
The price reductions, he says, are an attempt to encourage consumers to use a wider variety of vegetables and meet the targets laid out in the national dietary guidelines.
“Finns have started determinedly increasing their vegetable intake. We want to guide them towards the target laid out in the dietary recommendations, which is half a kilos a day. As fewer than ten per cent of Finns currently consume the recommended five portions of vegetables a day, we have some catching up to do,” says Heikkilä.
He points out that 55 per cent of respondents to a customer satisfaction survey conducted by the retail co-operative indicated that they would increase the intake of vegetables if vegetable prices were lower.
“We want to make sure that price is not an obstacle to a healthy diet,” states Heikkilä.
The S Group also reminds that seasonal fluctuations in vegetable prices present a challenge for determining a lower price level for vegetables.
“We cannot promise exactly the same vegetable prices month after month, but we can promise that domestic vegetable prices will be lower in the future than in the previous corresponding harvest seasons,” says Ilkka Alarotu, the head of assortments and pricing at the S Group.
Alarotu estimates that lower prices for home-grown vegetables will also guarantee the availability of fresher vegetables and bring about a substantial decrease in the amount of food waste generated by grocery shops operated by the S Group.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Seppo Samuli – Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi
