The French chicory growers and labour organisations, whom charges have been brought against for forming a cartel, are appealing the fine. This as told by a spokesman from the sector. In the beginning of March eleven chicory growers were fined 3.65 million Euro because of cartel forming. According to the cartel watchdog these grower associations had been making price agreements since 1998.
Seven branch and labour organisations received an additional fine of 320,000 Euro for price fixing. With this the cartel watchdog wants to end secret arrangements between producers and trading concerns, which have lasted for 14 years.
According to a spokesman all of those convicted are appealing. "The fine has been postponed now and does not need to be paid immediately. In a few months time there will be a second judgement and then it will all be clearer." He mentions that it is not only the chicory sector, which has problems. "Other sectors also have problems since the institute investigating these things has become an independent institution. Actually the whole of France is in trouble and all branches have been woken up."
According to a spokesman all of those convicted are appealing. "The fine has been postponed now and does not need to be paid immediately. In a few months time there will be a second judgement and then it will all be clearer." He mentions that it is not only the chicory sector, which has problems. "Other sectors also have problems since the institute investigating these things has become an independent institution. Actually the whole of France is in trouble and all branches have been woken up."
"l'Autorité française de la concurrence (The French competition authority) was part of the Ministry of Economic Affairs originally and is now completely independent. Previously matters like these were hushed up, but that is no longer the case. Fines received by other sectors are normally about much higher amounts than in the chicory branch. In the flour sector the fine amounts to more than 242 million."
"A further problem in France is the decreasing consumption of fruit and vegetables. Even last year when the prices were low there was a decrease of 5% in vegetables and 7% in fruit. And there is also pressure on the French fruit and vegetable trade. Last year growers had a lot of special offers for their own product and now it is expected that retailers will hardly buy foreign product because of fear of protests. The prices charged by French growers are higher than those of imported products and therefore retailers last year went more for imports. We are now at the start of a new season and we will have to wait and see what will happen."