Competiton watchdog slams 'opportunistic' price hikes on food basics in damning report | Business

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The Competition Commission says retailers, processors and producers passed on unjustified price increases on essential products such as sunflower oil, white and brown bread to consumers over the past two years. | News24_Business

The Competition Commission is concerned about essential food prices passed onto consumers over the past two yearsThe Competition Commission has flagged price increases that are"opportunistic" and"may not be justified by costs" on certain food basics over the past two years.

The commission says it will now be investigating the price of a range of essential food products, including bread, cooking oils, maize meal, rice, flour, margarine and pasta at retail and wholesale levels.SA antitrust watchdog, the Competition Commission, says retailers, processors and producers passed on unjustified price increases on essential products such as sunflower oil, white and brown bread to consumers over the past two years.

In the latest Essential Food Pricing Monitoring report released by the Commission on Tuesday, the body said that at the same time there had been"opportunistic price increases in maize meal" to consumers over the past 24 months. The report, which is the eighth one issued by the body since 2020, also had a special focus on the"feed-to-poultry value chain" in 2022.

It said the EFPM reports issued to date have"pointed to concerning features in several food markets and value chains" including larger differences between what farms get paid for food items and in-store prices, growing margins at the processor and retailer level, and"potential opportunistic pricing behaviour for staple food products such as bread and cooking oil".

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_Business They should be forced to sell these items at discounted prices for the next 2 years eating into their profit and giving back to consumers

_Business Then commission have identified and reported it, then what?

_Business They must also check eggs 🥚 price 😭

pmcafrica _Business Makro price of a loaf of Albany brown bread is R15 while the same bread at Spar is R18.

Hlulani_17 _Business They waited two year for this?

_Business They must watch Shoprite and Checkers closely... They're on a rapid rant of acquiring customer info via XSavings promising discounts, while in reality, they inflated prices and reserved previous normal prices as discounted prices. They'll later be profiting from all this data.

_Business Every 24 Months it’s the same thing these people make billions and only pay a few million and still price gauge. They should be forced to stop trading for 24 months as punishment because paying a fine is not deterring them from stealing from the poor.

pmcafrica _Business Remember when they went against the cellphone companies only for prices to actually not go down nothing will change

_Business South Africa is a lawless country. That's a fact.

siplikhuleni _Business Rupert and his capitalist gangs from Stellenbosch.

_Business All the prices skyrocketed. Weekly you notice the prices going up. Perhaps something should be done about it by SA citizens, else by the end of the year we'll be paying R 100 for a loaf of bread. 🙄🤔

_Business South Africa really is a crime scene indeed. word to MxolisiBob

_Business They should head to homes. They should have started with homes. Will they ever get to homes? Those things are not supposed so expensive

_Business Haw its yooooo.late I wonder where these watchdogs stays cause it's been a long time leaving like this retailers are abusing consumers real and gvt uthule💔💔😭😭

_Business So they did not see the price increase during lockdown, why are talking now. We have already spent that money. The competition commission must act fast.

_Business It took them the whole 2 years🤔 They must go and check cars especially the second hand

_Business ....and it's still happening. Especially WOOLWORTHS_SA

pmcafrica _Business Everything is overpriced in SA

_Business Now can something be done about it?

_Business And they kept quiet mxm ? Useless commission

_Business Are they going to get a written warning only CompComSA

_Business CompComSA so what's the way forward? I suggest that since we can't get refunds for being deliberately overcharged,all those items should be sold at half price of the original price(before the overcharge) for 2 years. Or o e bona yang?

_Business They just realised now?

_Business Profiteering from the poor. You will still find people calling for privatisation of essentials as a solution, Eskom to be precise.

_Business Shoprite was selling sasko loaf at 18.90 today it's 13.99. Something is fishy

_Business Why do the commission not take legal action against the perpetrators?

_Business Ne Nivea Man bo ningayikhohlwa

_Business So they should be fined and we should see a drastic decrease on those items

PabloZane2 _Business With this report will they help us to bring those prices down cos at the end of the day, Saturday I'm making groceries Will it help or it's just a report gathering dust

_Business So what's the way forward

_Business Every criminal feels entitled in this new dawn

_Business Why isint the competition commision getting onto the energy regulator with the constant increase in Eskom Electricity prices

_Business No shit sherlock, they been doing it for years. Just look at when the Price of Petrol, comes down.

_Business The cost of bread is shocking!!!

_Business Good good, now retailers must be forced to bring those prices back down pls, as well as all other unnecessarily marked up items, probs won't happen though, capitalist powers that be would never really let it happen to an extent that would truly benefit SA's pockets.

_Business CompComSA EFFSouthAfrica Julius_S_Malema Make them REBATE US, the consumers at the TILL POINTS!

_Business Competition Commission is useless, only now they notice something that's been going on for years'

_Business The margin placed on food in comparison with what the farmers get for their part doesn't make sense. Retailers most likely use this process to try and make up the losses incurred during the pandemic. They probably use the Ukraine war as an excuse to increase profits.

_Business And what are they doing about it

_Business And what's the solution?

_Business So what's gonna happen?

_Business What will happen now? They'll pay a fine, and the prices remain the same, or will they have to reduce it?

Ron_Da_Don_II _Business What is CompComSA doing about it? Are we going to see some repercussions?

_Business So are they going to reduce the prices or they'll just pay fines and life goes on

_Business They will do this with electricity also

_Business Please rescue us, kubi!

_Business Sunflower oil needs a special investigation becoz wow !!!! The prices sky rocketed

PetersWonderboy _Business A ye ye !!!

inkthatoo _Business They claimed it was Ukraine vs Russia, I couldn’t find the link for the price increases 🚮

_Business What’s the point of telling us something we already know if it’s not going to change ?

_Business Who’s going to be stop them ?

_Business And?

_Business And so what is the commission going to do about it

_Business And nothing will happen to those greedy retailers because their owners funded their puppet who is in charge now

_Business What the fvck did they do about it.

_Business Go tura le Di onions bathong🙆🏽‍♀️

_Business Greedy bastards

_Business Proudly brought to you by ANC

_Business I wonder of they will investigate their unjustified lockdown rules as well?

_Business Correction: Over the last 50 years. Petrol goes up prices all up, petrol comes down to lower levels prior to increase, prices stay the same because of excuses (many)

_Business They did and yall said its covid and then Ukraine.... you guys were for them. Now this ? We all know what they were doing is wrong

_Business Even if you win CC, we won't benefit! It would help if you jump in when things happen... Now, when u penalise the retailers, the money goes into the black hole

_Business How is this gonna help us.We,re never gonna get our money back for paying double the price for sunflower oil since the Russia/Ukraine war

_Business Prices are increasing on the monthly basis for listed items. 🤔

_Business competition commission is toothless that is why businesses keep on doing this. Unless the fine is twice the price margin and prison sentence for the bosses of the busines owners no one will care for competition commission.

_Business About time and there was clear opportunism by the retailers. Look at Basmati rice, went up one year due to low supply and has never come back down again in SA, despite the price going back to normal globally. They need HUGE fines please, on behalf of the consumers.

_Business Crooks

_Business Why does it take so long for them to act?

_Business And now what?

_Business And what’s the sanction against these capitalists?!

_Business Will the Competition Commission ever say anything about Eskom? Electricity supply has decreased along with reliability but prices keep on increasing. It’s also a blatant monopoly? Or is the commission solely focused on functioning industries in the private sector?

_Business What recourse do we have as consumers over this unscrupulous practice?

_Business And what is the competition commission going to do about it?

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