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View Full Version : Fadul accuses "cartels" of price fixing



NewsWhore
06-16-2010, 04:00 PM
Fiery Industry and Commerce Minister Jose Ramon Fadul said yesterday that the DR is less competitive because local producers act like cartels and set their own prices. Fadul said that despite his best efforts to make the country more competitive, these industrialists and producers have created a scenario that hinders competition and makes price fixing very easy. He cited the example of eggs where the country produces between 5 and 7 million eggs a day by 12 to 15 producers who cover local demand. Fadul said, "Yet I never see one of them selling eggs at RD$4 or RD$5."
Fadul made these comments at the monthly luncheon meeting hosted by Multimedios del Caribe. Interviewed by the media group director Osvaldo Santana and El Caribe's Manuel Quiroz, the minister said that the same thing occurs with poultry. Consumption is around 500,000 per day and the price is between RD$25 and RD$28, and yet, according to Fadul, nobody dares offer poultry at RD$22 a pound.
Fadul also accused the rice growers of price fixing, saying that the 'select' variety should not be selling at RD$22 or RD$23 a pound when some growers are producing rice for RD$13 to RD$16 a pound, "but there is protection among them". He added that to combat this, there is a law in Congress that will create the Commission on Competition whose work will complement the Consumer Protection Institute (Pro Consumidor) and have the power to regulate prices.

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