Supermarket ‘duopoly’ in sights

WELLINGTON: The Greens are taking aim at New Zealand’s supermarket ‘‘duopoly’’ and have called on the Commerce Commission to investigate the sector after it has finished looking into petrol companies.

This comes a day after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she ‘‘would not be surprised’’ if the commission conducted a market study on the supermarket sector.

Green MP Gareth Hughes said there was ‘‘longstanding’’ knowledge there was an issue in the supermarket sector.

He said groups such as Consumer NZ had been calling for an investigation for a while, adding that New Zealand did not have a code of conduct despite the fact one existed in Australia.

‘‘When you look at the facts on the ground, Kiwis are paying more than our Australian cousins — in fact, more than any other developed countries on basically everything,’’ Mr Hughes said.

New Zealand’s supermarket sector is largely made up of Foodstuffs, which owns New World and Pak’n’Save, and Woolworths, which owns Countdown.

Mr Hughes said given the years of concern about the duopoly, the supermarket sector needed to be the ‘‘next cab off the rank’’ after the Commerce Commission looked into petrol companies.

On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Government would prioritise the Commerce Amendment Bill so it would be passed in two weeks.

When law, it will mean the commission will be able to undertake ‘‘market studies’’, which will compel companies to provide information proving they are behaving competitively.

Ms Ardern said she would personally be nominating the petrol industry to be the first sector to be investigated.

Mr Hughes said he was ‘‘urging’’ Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi to nominate supermarkets to be next.

‘‘For far too long, the supermarket duopoly between Foodstuffs and Woolworths has hurt producers, growers and small business in New Zealand,’’ Mr Hughes said.

He said he was planning to meet Mr Faafoi next week to relay his concerns about the sector.

He expected Mr Faafoi to be quite open to the idea.

‘‘Early on he signalled the possibility of working on a code of conduct, which is something the Green Party has long called for and would definitely support.’’

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said on Wednesday: ‘‘At this stage, the Government has no plans for market studies until the Bill is passed and we have been clear the first industry to be looked at is the fuel industry.

‘‘There is no commitment to look at the supermarket sector at this time.’’ — NZME