MOSCOW, December 15 The Federal Antimonopoly Service reported that it had opened cases against four chicken egg producers due to rising prices.
«Territorial authorities have identified signs of violation of the Law on Protection of Competition in the actions of companies,» says the press release.
Thus, the Crimean department of the FAS revealed an increase in prices for chicken eggs by Partizan and the Oktyabrskoye joint venture. Since September, they have increased the cost of various categories of eggs to 94%.
The Kirov OFAS recorded the fact of an increase in prices on the part of the Sovetskaya Agrofirm and the Vyatsko-Polyanskaya Poultry Farm — from June to October the increase was up to 60%.
The case was initiated on the grounds of a cartel agreement. The department will study the validity of such an increase; if a violation is established, companies will face turnover fines.
Chicken eggs in Russia have risen in price by 46% since the beginning of the year.
As Vladimir Putin said the day before, the rise in prices is explained by the fact that that demand increased, but production did not increase, and imports were not opened on time. This was a failure in the work of the government, the president explained. He suggested that the situation will improve, since it has been discussed with the Ministry of Agriculture for two weeks.
Among the measures being taken are plans to increase production, expanding trade in eggs directly from producers, and transferring poultry farms and networks to long-term supply contracts. In addition, duty-free import of eggs was opened.