Food prices, markups and access of Romanian products on retailers’ shelves will be monitored until December 31, 2024 by a committee made up of officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Competition Council and the retail and processing area, Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu told on Thursday.

He said that capping of markups on all products processed in Romania has not been abandoned, but this monitoring initiative is designed to solve the problems reported in the market regarding the unjustifiably high markups on Romanian products as against imports.

„Yesterday [Wednesday] I had a discussion with retailers and processors. We have established that moving forward we will set up a monitoring committee that will include three representatives of the retail area, three representatives of the processors, a representative of the Competition Council and one from the ministry, and the group will be coordinated by me. Because at the moment we have in force until the end of the year the ordinance capping 21 categories of products, the presence on the shelves of Romanian products, the prices for food products and the markups on Romanian products, as well as imported ones, on all categories, will also be monitored until December 31,” Barbu said.

He added that, if a processor does not have access to the retailer’s shelves, the committee will analyse with its representatives the possibility of listing and will make the decision to put such Romanian products on the shelf.

„Basically, it is for the first time that a committee is created in this processor-retail-ministry chain to really solve the problems of processors. Moreover, it clearly analyses any unfair commercial practice, so that we no longer see the same category of product brought from imports, with a lower markup, while the products from Romania have a higher markup. The same categories must have the same markup.”

In Barbu’s opinion, the monitoring done by this committee will make access of processors to the shelf much easier.

The minister added that capping the markups on all processed products has not been completely” abandoned, but it has been decided that this monitoring committee will function until December 31, and if it works very well, the mechanism will be extended.

„If it works very well, it will continue to be extended and processors will have access to the shelves and at a fair price, as well as consumers. That was a proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture at the request of processors and retailers, who told us that we have an ordinance that is in force on capping the markups on basic foods for Romanians on low and medium incomes. We agreed not to establish it by a piece of legislation, but we will set up a mechanism by ministerial order so as to solve the problems, the shelf prices to be correct and the markups slapped on Romanian products to be the same as those levied on imports.’

Barbu also said that the order under which the monitoring committee will be established could be finalised on Friday, and next week the first meeting of this committee will take place.

„Today, the request was sent to retailers, to processors, to provide their picks for the committee; it was sent to the Competition Council, and as we have the persons, we start drawing up the order. I hope that tomorrow we will issue the order for the monitoring committee, and next week it will already be the first meeting. These will take place weekly. We have also asked both retailers and processors that, when information appears in the media, on television, or in certain publications that shows that certain foods have increased a lot, to leave the committee with a clear justification, a statement, so that we can dismantle these things if it is not true. If it is true, we must explain exactly where they come from and why the increases come,” Barbu concluded.

AGERPRES