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ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued show-cause notices to 19 feed companies for collusive activities and, prima facie, entering into a prohibited agreement.
The CCP took suo motu notice of the concerns and complaints from consumers regarding a concurrent increase in feed prices and initiated an inquiry in this regard.
Data gathered from market sources showed that there was indeed a simultaneous increase in price by poultry feed mills. The average quantum of increase in prices also appeared to be similar, which raised suspicion of collusive decision making and a violation of Section 4 of the Competition Act, the CCP said.
The inquiry observed that from December 2018 to December 2020, feed mills colluded to raise poultry feed prices by Rs825 per 50kg bag, thus making the feed 32 per cent costlier for the poultry farmers.
Data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) for September 2020 showed that chicken prices rose by 18.31pc and eggs by 5.2pc. The rise in the poultry and eggs prices coincided with an increase in feed prices by almost Rs100 per bag.
In October 2020, after another price increase by poultry feed mills by Rs125 on layer and Rs175 on broiler feed, the chicken prices rose by 26.62pc and eggs by 23.81pc as compared to the previous month.
Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2021
