Studying the food market, the Competition Council (CC) found that prices in stores for milk, cheese, as well as doctor’s sausage and certain types of meat, as well as some other food produced in Latvia, are higher than for food imported from other countries.
As follows from the conclusion of the Investigative Committee, for example, doctor’s sausage produced in Latvia was on average 16% more expensive than imported sausage. And the markup on fresh local chicken meat at the retail stage was on average 196% higher compared to imported analogues. Cheese produced in Latvia is on average 59% more expensive than cheese produced outside Latvia. Latvian-made sour cream in stores is on average 32% more expensive than imported ones. The Investigative Committee calls on traders not to violate the law prohibiting unfair trading practices.
The UK study covers the period from January 2021 to May 2023. The Council assessed the interaction of suppliers and retailers, as well as the correlation of price changes along the supply chain and retail price volatility. In total, data was requested from 28 retailers and 40 manufacturers/suppliers from Latvia and outside Latvia. More than 100,000 data obtained in the first stage and more than 70,000 obtained in the second stage were analyzed.
In an interview with Latvian Radio, Minister of Agriculture Armands Krause proposed regulating prices for local food products in stores by law. In his opinion, for those food products whose journey to stores is only a few tens of kilometers, which means they are supplied by local producers, the markup due to supplies could not be applied. This practice has been introduced in other European countries, where it is called “zero kilometer” to support local food producers.
Latvian newspaper
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2024-04-18 12:00:35