Butchers were threatened: FAS began checking price increases

The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) has begun checking the validity of the increase in meat prices from producers, the Ministry of Agriculture reported at a meeting. However, the department came to the conclusion that nothing critical is happening on the meat market. Yes, pork and chicken prices are rising, but this is a seasonal factor. It is hoped that tariffs will start to fall in September. The promised, as they say, usually has to be expected with one delay or another. The only good news is that the current reduction in price tags is scheduled for autumn, and not in 25 years, as communism was once promised to the Soviet people.

Some participants of the meat market FAS sent inquiries on the cost of production, selling prices for products and the reasons for their growth. The antimonopolists will carefully analyze the received answers, after which they will draw conclusions regarding the rise in prices.

It should be noted here that the FAS often arranges demonstration checks in accordance with public requests. However, we will almost never know how they end. In any case, no one will remember that the prices after the raids of the employees of the service became lower. Most likely, the same fate awaits the announced antitrust investigation into meat. Moreover, both the Ministry of Agriculture and market participants have already agreed that this is a temporary, seasonal factor. And that as soon as they immediately go down

The situation is as follows. Producers and suppliers notify retail chains of rising prices for poultry and pork until the end of August. According to Rosstat, chicken has risen in price by 6.4% over the year, to 198 rubles per kilogram. How much it will cost in retail at the end of the month is unknown. However, pork in some retail chains has already risen in price by about 20%.

Producers in their answers will find a thousand and one good reasons for overpricing. Unfortunately, all of them will be objective in our today’s deformed economy. And the growth of tariffs, and the rise in price of imported equipment, and the falling ruble exchange rate …

They won’t tell you the main thing. That there is no competition in poultry or pig breeding today. More than 10 years ago, the Rosselkhoznadzor issued an order forbidding the keeping of pigs in personal subsidiary farms and even in peasant farmsteads – exclusively for themselves. Reason: African swine fever, which breaks out precisely in such small farms, and then falls on pig complexes and all thousands of livestock have to be destroyed.

In order to save large-scale production, we killed the small one. Which, by the way, gave the market 30-40% of pork grown not in an industrial way on growth stimulants, but at home. The same can be said about poultry farming. Let’s remember what battles unfolded a couple of years ago, when gardeners on 6 acres were allowed to keep chickens. The merciless chicken flu will spread from vegetable gardens to large poultry farms and all the birds there will have to be destroyed.

As a result, summer residents can keep only cats and dogs on the plots. We fix price increases in industries that are the pride, the locomotives of the Russian village. After all, Russians are completely self-sufficient in both poultry and pork; moreover, we are even increasing exports. You can’t blame the rise in prices on import dependence. The point is the lack of competition, when monopolies begin to dictate their terms. Large manufacturers have removed private traders from the path and are struggling with duty-free import of products from abroad.

“The decision-makers of today’s FAS know all the major market participants by sight,” says Professor of the Basic Department of Trade Policy of the Russian University of Economics. G.V. Plekhanov Vyacheslav Cheglov. – And often enough simple attention to the problem (call) to contain the rise in prices. Here, it seems, already the second stage. The Federal Antimonopoly Service will check supply chains and watch the dynamics of selling prices. And the disclosure of information for manufacturers and retail chains is a procedure during which you can get fines, especially negotiable ones. Although it is still unlikely for Russia, every major market participant has connections in power.

Therefore, producers will convince the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the correctness of their actions, slow down price growth and differentiate it by category. They will freeze prices for certain socially significant items, increase the volume of promotions. And somewhere on New Year’s Eve they will win back the lost profits. For the population, the involvement of the FAS is better than just discussing the problem, the roots of which the actions of the FAS will not eliminate.”

In a good way, it is necessary to check the actions of large players in all markets, but with massive actions, efficiency may decrease. It is easier, as in cases with buckwheat, sugar, to check one segment. At the same time, word of mouth and the habit of entrepreneurs to look around and act on the fact will work. Most subjects will draw conclusions and moderate their “appetites”. But since the rise in prices has an objective basis, I would not expect a decline in prices without serious support from the government.

“We have a market economy and no one can dictate what prices to set for certain goods, products and services,” continues Polina Gusyatnikova, senior managing partner at PG Partners law firm, “On the other hand, if the FAS is interested in such a fundamental issue, it means we can say that prices are raised unreasonably and this may be the result of collusion between various sellers. Checks will be carried out. But whether this will affect prices is unknown. Sometimes it is cheaper for the seller to pay a fine to the national treasury, but to get super profits from the sale of goods at an inflated price to ordinary buyers.