Filenews 11 August 2024 - by Angelos Nicolaou
A practice that has been followed for years and has resulted in consumers paying more expensive prices for fruit and vegetables, is coming to an end following instructions given by the Consumer Protection Service. Essentially, suppliers set the retail price of products on a daily basis. As a result, intermediaries up to and including the seller could not and wanted to reduce their profit margins, since the final price was fixed at the same time as the wholesale price of fruit and vegetables.
An investigation by the Consumer Protection Service on the increased prices of fruit and vegetables has shown that unjustifiably increased retail prices are recorded in some cases in the retail price of fruits and vegetables, which is mainly due to the practice followed until now to set a retail price for fruit and vegetables by suppliers on a daily basis. Following this finding, instructions were given to end this practice and therefore it is now expected to establish whether or not the Consumer Protection Service complied with a new investigation that will follow.
In an announcement, the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry states that, on the occasion of the increased prices of fruit and vegetables recorded recently by the Price Observatory of the Consumer Protection Service, as well as publications of previous days on the issue, it has carried out on-the-spot inspections and meetings, both at the level of producer groups and at fruit shops and supermarkets.
It is noted that during the contacts that took place, strict instructions were given by the Consumer Protection Service to all stakeholders for an immediate end to the practice of setting a retail price on fruit and vegetables by suppliers, which resulted in their compliance from 1/8/2024.
The purpose of the Service is to ensure conditions of healthy competition and price setting on the basis of free market conditions with the ultimate goal of safeguarding the economic interests of consumers.
In this context, it is noted that the Consumer Protection Service, in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, will intensify the foreseen market controls, at all levels, to eliminate any unfair practices against consumers.
At the same time, the Cyprus Consumers Association, after noting that the actions of the Consumer Protection Service have brought results, states that for two years it has been raising the problem of fruit and vegetable trade and asked for an investigation and wonders "why the Competent Authority took such a long time to react". It also asks "who bears responsibility for the increased prices paid by the consumer in recent years" and whether "someone will finally be held accountable".
According to the Consumers Association, the comparison of prices for the period 18/4/2024 to 4/7/2024 with the prices formed on 8/8/2024, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment, showed an average decrease of 22.95% in the 22 species covered by the survey. The Cyprus Consumers Association states, however, that "in bananas the gap between producer price and retail price recorded an increase of 199%".
