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extensive throughout the industry, both as a result of measures designed to protect and promote the production of raw materials used by the industry and as a result of certain licensing or excise measures affecting the sale of beer, soft drinks, and confectionery. Producers' cooperatives are particularly active in the dairy, meat, and fish processing industries, and consumers' cooperatives are involved in baking, flour milling, and margarine production. The cooperatives handle the major share of agricultural wholesale trade and processing.

The trend in Sweden has been toward greater consumption of commercially produced baked goods. Although a multitude of neighborhood shops cater fo consumer demand for fresh baked goods, the number of commercial bakeries is increasing. One of the largest of these is AB Wasa Spisbrodsfabrik, a manufacturer of rye crisp bread.

Meat processing, like baking, has moved from homes and small shops to plants of industrial size. The Consumers Cooperative Union (Kooperativa Fobunndet — KF) has acquired a large number of plants from both producers' and consumers' associations and has closed down a number of the less economical units. At the same time, a number of large modern plants are being built. One of the largest meat-processing plants now in operation is owned by Konsum Stockholm, an independent consumers' cooperative in the capital.

Other important food products include processed milk, sugar, and fats and oils. Both cooperatives and private plants are engaged in milk processing. Of the latter, Svenska Mjolkprodukter AB, with factories in Kimstad and Gotene, is one of the largest. Sugar beets, two-thirds of them domestically grown, normally supply over 95% of Sweden's demand for sugar. The sole manufacturer of sugar in Sweden is Svenska Sockerfabriks AB, a private corporation with headquarters in Malmo.

e. Textiles

The textile industry (Figure 12) is predominantly oriented toward the domestic market, and its growth has been restricted by foreign competition. To counter this competition and to rationalize production, Swedish textile firms have undertaken substantial horizontal and vertical integration, much of it with the aid of the Investment Bank of Sweden. To some extent, textile producers have been attempting to compensate for increased costs by shifting to the manufacture of higher quality, higher priced goods that are in greater demand in export markets. Arrangements have also been made for joint marketing of textile products by several of the local manufacturers.

FIGURE 12. High-speed automated spindles in one of Sweden's largest cotton textile plants. One skilled worker supervises the operation of 3,000-4,000 spindles. (U/OU) (photo)

As a result of mergers, the number of establishments in the textile industry declined from 1,607 in 1962 to 558 in 1969. Employment in the textile industry also has fallen by more than half, from over 80,000 in 1962 to about 35,000 in 1969. Despite the fall in the number of firms and employees, however, the value of textile production reached an all time high of US$555 million in 1969 (value added was $277 million).

6. Construction (U/OU)

Construction accounts for approximately 9% of GNP and total employment. Gross investment in buildings and other construction averaged 66% of the country's gross fixed asset formation between 1965 and 1970 and reached about US$5 billion in 1970. This high level of activity largely reflects the pressing consumer demand for housing and vigorous government efforts to ameliorate the chronic housing shortage, combined with large government outlays for infrastructure and public works. As shown in the following tabulation, housing and local authorities' public works outlays in 1970 each accounted for about23

APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090018-7