Competition Commission Settles With Pioneer Foods
“bring much needed relief to consumers who have paid above-competitive prices for bread and wheat products”.
Those were the words spoken by Minister Ebrahim Patel (Economic Development) yesterday in relation to the Competition Commission reaching settlement with Pioneer Foods in its price fixing investigation.
This is good news for all South Africans. We will soon see lower bread pricing and business in South Africa has been given a wake up a call. In a country where minimum wage laws are ignored this is all good news. In terms of the settlement Pioneer Food will pay, inclusive of the fine levied earlier this year, penalties totalling R445 million plus it would transfer R250 million to a competitiveness fund for the agro-processing industry plus it would commit to reductions in the net selling prices of selected products totalling R160 million. These three components amount to R855 million in commitments that are for the benefit of the South African fiscus, competitors and consumers.