Anti-trust Watchdog To Investigate Bread Producers for Cartel Agreement
Bulgaria's anti-trust watchdog launched a probe among the major bread and flour producers in the country for cartel agreements.
The registered sharp rise of flour prices, which is not proportional to the index of wheat prices, could be the result of an agreement for coordination of prices between flour wholesalers, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in a statement on Thursday.
The problems related to price volatility in the wheat-wheat flour-bread chain, as well as in the entire group of agriculture commodities and foods in recent years, indicate that specific initiatives in support of competition are needed, the statement said.
CPC pointed to bigger price-formation transparency, better use of quality standards and the introduction of written contracts between grain producers and traders, as some of the top priority issues in bread industry.