After his ultimatum to food manufacturers and importers to avert price rises expired this morning, Minister of Finance Avigdor Liberman has asked the inter-ministerial committee on prices to examine the level of concentration in the markets of the products whose prices are due to rise.
Liberman has asked the committee to examine the activities of five companies: Osem-Nestle, Diplomat, Schestowitz, Ristretto, and Leiman Schlussel. On Sunday Liberman and Minister of Economy Orna Barbivai asked these companies as well as Strauss Group and Sano to halt their planned price rises or provide explanations for the rises. Strauss and Sano said in response that they would not be putting up prices and were thus removed from the list of the companies to be examined.
In their joint letter to the prices committee, Liberman and Barbivai wrote, "The wave of reports about price hikes raises concerns about the use of companies of excessive market force in order to rake in surplus profits at the expense of the public."
In theory, if the examination finds that there is excessive concentration in certain product categories, then the government could add foods the list of items that are under price supervision.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on February 1, 2022.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2022.