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The price of the issue: anti-monopoly authorities are concerned about bread prices
The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) is seriously concerned about the issue of prices for bread products in retail chains. In any case, the head of the service, Maxim Shaskolsky, has already made statements twice in the last few days that bread prices are inflated.
On October 10, his speech was presented at the All-Russian Conference on Procurement. "It must be said that the average markup of retail chains on bread, which is most in demand by the population, is very high - on average 60%, and in some cases the markup exceeded 100%," said Maxim Shaskolsky (quoted by RIA Novosti).
Another statement was already made on October 15 on the sidelines of the All-Russian Customs Conference. "In our opinion, the price increase for socially significant products in retail chains may be unusually high, but for bread - excessive," TASS quotes the source as saying.
However, in September, the FAS press service reported that it was monitoring prices for certain types of socially significant goods. Among them were bread, flour and butter. It is reported that the service also requested information from the manufacturers of the products in question. Apparently, the officials who received it compared the data they received with prices in retail chains. And apparently, they did not like what they saw.
However, from what is being said out loud now, it is difficult to understand what exactly the FAS management is unhappy with. You are unlikely to notice that markups on various goods vary greatly from store to store. Premium goods can be sold several times more expensive than their cost price, and the budget segment is sometimes sold at a loss (if, of course, the retailer calculates that the total receipt from the purchase will still bring in a profit). And the same bread can often be found in the same stores for 10 rubles, 100 rubles per loaf. Flour makes you fat: St. Petersburg residents are starting to eat less bread and more meat
Perhaps the antitrust authorities simply need to remind market participants that they are watching everything that is happening. Prices always tend to rise, especially in the fall. This is especially true if inflation fails to reach the 4% target for four years in a row.
And if they had said earlier: “It’s all about fighting inflation!” - That’s all for now.