The price puzzle: I. Hofmanas met with the Competition Council

Minister of Agriculture Ignas Hofmanas met with representatives of the Competition Council. They discussed important issues related to the Food Council, potential risks, the Council's areas of activity and opportunities for cooperation.

The meeting discussed that food price regulation would be a last resort measure that could pose risks, and that the Ministry of Agriculture, through the establishment of the Food Council, aims to analyse in detail all the factors influencing price changes.

„To take a classic example: when the price of milk fell, the share of farmers fell significantly, the price to the final consumer remained unchanged, while the share of processors and traders increased. In order to find out the reasons for this, associations and individual companies are reluctant to provide information on the grounds that the Competition Council does not allow them to do so. Not everything is good, there are many problems that need to be made transparent, to clarify what and how much we can and cannot do. Where is the limit, especially when it comes to prices?", said Minister of Agriculture I. Hofmanas.

Jolanta Ivanauskienė, President of the Competition Council, presented the activities of the body, stressed the commonality of interests, and spoke about the market-restricting agreements that ultimately affect the consumer, and the potential risks in decision-making.

The representatives of the Competition Council have been invited as observers to the second meeting of the Food Council on 15 April. It is scheduled to examine the product-by-product analysis provided by the State Enterprise Agricultural Data Centre (SEDC).

We would like to remind you that every consumer can now follow the retail price statistics on the website www.produktukainos.lt, set up by the EACF.