The Catalan union Unió de Pagesos and the state coordinator to which it belongs, the Union of Farmers and Livestock Unions, have made public this Wednesday a complaint filed with the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) against the Mercadona distribution chains , Bonpreu and Lidl. In the lawsuit, carried out with the advice of the Redi law firm, they ask the entity to investigate and, if the circumstances arise, sanction the aforementioned companies for, allegedly, "having set identical prices in the sale of cartons of cow's milk private label UHT".
The union of farmers and ranchers and the lawyers accompanying them in the lawsuit consider that these three groups "have acted as a de facto cartel" and have sold this product on their shelves "at the same price" for at least three years and four months. followed. The period studied includes from week 51 of 2018 to week 12 of 2022. The complaint was filed with the CNMC in June 2022 but the information provided has subsequently been expanded on four occasions, with monitoring of the prices of milk cartons from private label until week 12 of 2023, that is, until the end of March of this year. As of May 3, the price of a carton of a liter of private label whole milk in these supermarkets is 0.91 euros, as this newspaper has verified.
Joan Caball, national coordinator of the Unió de Pagesos de Catalunya, Marc Xifra, national head of the union's dairy sector, Carles Vicente, head of the Food Chain at the Unión de Unións de Agricultores y Ganaderos, and Albert Poch, lawyer who is an expert in competition from Redi Abogados, have insisted this Wednesday that the large distribution chains "exercise abuse of power" and end up conditioning the prices that the industry pays to milk producers. "The white brand of milk has a market share of 48%," they have remarked.
The consequence of this situation, they have added, "is a reduction in the competitive environment and the acquisition of more strength to negotiate with the dairy industry, which, in turn, has transferred the pressure to the farmer to impose very low prices." In some cases, they have insisted, "below production costs, a practice that violates the law of the food chain."
The union has commented that the price of milk at source closed 2022 with an average of 0.46 euros per liter. In the month of December 2022 it reached 0.60 euros per liter, but this last month of March they are already paying less, between 0.55 and 0.52 euros per liter to the farmer, "when production costs current prices are around 0.54 euros". "We have the right to earn a living, not just to cover the costs," Xifra remarked. The precariousness that farmers face - she has insisted - is reducing the number of livestock farms in Catalonia and Spain. "Every time we produce less milk." At present, Catalonia concentrates more than 300 farms that produce cow's milk, when a decade ago there were more than a thousand.
In his opinion, the distribution chains "use milk as a claim product", which devalues the product. Whole milk reached a CPI of 30.8% this March, being one of the foods that has become more expensive.
The union representatives have demanded that the different governments "enforce the legislation, especially the law on the food chain and the law on the defense of competition", to guarantee producers "decent prices".
Mercadona sources have claimed to be unaware "on what these statements are based." "We have not received any notification from any body on this matter. What we do at Mercadona is work to have the best quality at the best price," they added.
From the CNMC they explain that they cannot comment on the complaints that reach the agency until they lead to the initiation of a file. "In this case, we are not aware that any procedure has yet been initiated (at that time, we always make a public communication), so we cannot confirm or deny that these complaints have arrived or in what state of processing they are," They comment to this newspaper.
