"In the summer, when domestic products hit the market, prices rise," said Maxime Botteron, an economist at UBS. "It's exactly the opposite of what happens in the surrounding euro zone, where prices drop if internal supply rises."
"Swiss products are associated with high quality, and high environmental and social standards," said Stefan Legge, head of tax and trade policy at the University of St. Gallen. "A large part of the Swiss population is just ready to pay those high prices for that."
The government regularly cuts the levies, but only for specific situations. This was the case last week for eggs, as Swiss chickens are unable to meet demand despite a 35% increase in domestic production over the past decade.
Despite the protection afforded by the system, Swiss farmers say they still struggle at times to make a living. This led the government to pay out some 2.7 billion francs ($3.1 billion) in direct subsidies to agriculture last year.
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