Competition Authority finding on beef sector a ‘whitewash’ claims IFA

No evidence of a pricing ‘cartel’ says authority in reponse to 200 complaints

THE Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) assertion that there is no evidence of a pricing ‘cartel’ in the beef sector has been labelled a “whitewash” by the IFA.

And IFA president Tim Cullinan claimed that the CCPC treated farmers “with contempt” in its response last week to over 200 complainants who raised issues about the beef processing sector.

In its letter to complainants, the CCPC said its review concluded that there is insufficient evidence of a breach of competition law in the beef sector to warrant action.

The CCPC said information showing that beef processors charge similar prices does not constitute evidence of a cartel.

It added that despite considerable engagement with various beef industry stakeholders it found no evidence of a cartel agreement between beef processors.

The CCPC received over 200 complaints about the beef sector during 2019. It says the majority of these complaints related to five core issues:

The similarity in base price per kilo offered by processors to beef farmers across all beef processing plants which was indicated as evidence of the existence of an alleged cartel operated by beef processors;

Dissatisfaction with the criteria for the payment of “in-spec” bonuses applied by beef processors; Foreign beef imports; Claims that the operation of feedlots distorts competition;

The impact of a reported monopoly on offal processing.

Mr Cullinan said the IFA’s legal team is reviewing the CCPC correspondence to see what options are now open.

“The response from the CCPC issued following recent legal correspondence to them from IFA after they ignored scores of complaints over the last year is totally unacceptable,” he said.

“It is a whitewash. Rather than investigating the complaints, they sat on them for months and did nothing.

“It shows complete contempt for farmers.”

Mr Cullinan said that on May 22, the IFA’s legal representatives wrote to the CCPC demanding a response to complaints made about the beef sector over the last 12 months.

“We demanded that they would let IFA and farmers know the outcome of these complaints.

“We were clear with the

CCPC that if they continued to ignore the complaints, we would seek a judicial review and take an action against them for damages caused to farmers’ livelihoods as a result of its failure to carry out its functions.

Pathetic

“We learned that rather than investigating the complaints, it took the CCPC all this time to decide to do nothing, without even an investigation. It’s pathetic.”

The CCPC did not respond to requests for comment from the Farming Independent.

However, in its response to complainants last week the CCPC said its decision did not preclude “any person from lodging a fresh or related complaint” in respect of an “alleged breach of competition law”.