The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) opened cases against two Crimean and two Kirov companies producing chicken eggs on grounds of violation of competition and a cartel agreement. This was reported in the telegram channel of the service.
We are talking about the Crimean LLC Partizan and LLC SP Oktyabrskoye, which in September 2023 “allowed an increase in wholesale selling prices to 94% for different categories of eggs,” the FAS specified. According to the service, a simultaneous increase in prices, which was not influenced by external conditions, has signs of a violation of the law on protection of competition.
The FAS also drew attention to the Kirov LLC Sovetskaya Agrofirma and JSC Vyatsko-Polyanskaya Poultry Farm. The department believes that from the beginning of June to October 2023, they “allowed an increase in wholesale selling prices for eggs to 60%.” Cases were initiated against the companies on the basis of a cartel agreement.
Yesterday, the first direct line with Vladimir Putin in two years took place, during which he answered selected questions from Russians and journalists. In particular, the president was told about the rise in prices for chicken eggs — in some regions the price for a dozen exceeded 200 rubles.
“I talked with the Minister of Agriculture, asked how things were with his eggs, he said everything was fine «, Putin tried to answer. He continued: “I’m sorry, I apologize about this, this is a failure of the government.”
Later, the president mentioned the shortage and rise in price of chicken eggs in the context of a 300-fold increase in the incidence of measles and a shortage of vaccines. Putin called it a “technical failure, which is regrettable.” As another reason, he pointed out the low immunization of migrant workers and people who came to Russia from Ukraine.
Agrifood Strategies President Albert Davleev noted in a conversation with Kommersant that only imports can contribute to saturating the market with eggs. At the same time, as he suggested, after the New Year the problem will be solved with a decrease in demand for chicken eggs.