07 Dec 2007


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OFT “got it wrong” over milk price-fixing

Milk

Wyke Farms

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The boss of a leading dairy producer has hit out at the OFT over its fines to supermarkets and retailers for alleged price fixing back in 2002 and 2003.

Richard Clothier, managing director of Wyke Farms – which was not implicated by the OFT – claimed the consumer watchdog had got it wrong.

He said: “On this occasion the Office of Fair Trading have not responded in an appropriate way. At that time, without substantial price rises, this country was at risk of being in a situation where dairy commodities become rationed due to short supply.

“The OFT's job is to act in the interests of the consumer and a shortage of food, particularly staple items such as dairy is certainly in the interests of no one.

“The 'fair trade' approach has to apply to home supplied goods and this has clearly not happened here.

“Before the industry pressure to increase prices paid for milk, we were paying approximately16.5 PPL back to farmers. This is not a sustainable price and farmers were quitting production or going out of business.”

Clothier added that the rises in the shop price of milk would have been even higher this year had the supermarkets and producers failed to act in 2002-2003.

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david hill	10 Dec 2007 16:18:00
The Asda (Wall-Mart)/Sainsbury et al rip-off is just another example of what companies will do when they are driven by sheer 'Greed'. But if my arithmetic is right, it pays to be greedy. In this respect both supermarket groups and their collaborators pocketed over £300 million ($600 million plus), but where they were only fined jointly no more than £116 million ($235 million). Even if they broke even with their illegal and rip-off transactions, one does not have to be an Einstein to know that this certainly isn't a deterrent by any means. Therefore the greed will just continue and where as the supermarkets have so much dominance and power now, the people will just have to accept it and pay up. Unfortunately for humankind this greed is far more sinister than it appears at face value, for if you look at how the world's resources are being exploited at an alarming rate by corporates, this greed will be the eventual undoing of the human experience itself. Dr David Hill World Innovation Foundation Bern, Switzerland