The Ministry of Agriculture will monitor, in the coming period, the commercial markup applied by retailers for products processed in Romania, as well as imported products, so that there is no unfair trade practice, with higher markup for Romanian products, said Agriculture Minister Florin Barbu, at Indagra & Indagra Food on Thursday.

He explained that monitoring will be carried out by a working committee to be set up by December 31, which will include: three representatives from the retail area, three representatives from the processing area, a representative of the Competition Council, under the coordination of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Agriculture minister mentioned that it is very important „to see Romanian products on the shelves”, following the establishment of this committee.

At the same time, he expressed the hope that all the complaints from Romanian food processors will be resolved by this committee.

„When retailers are part of this committee, they have to solve and put Romanian products on the shelves. I no longer want to see Romanian producers removed by retailers. Moreover, the monitoring will be very clear also on the markup practiced by retailers for products that are processed in Romania and for products that are imported. We don’t want to have unfair trade practices in Romania, with a higher markup on Romanian products and a lower markup on imported products,” Florin Barbu added.

He emphasized that he was referring to the sale of Romanian agri-food products in retail chains.

„This committee will meet every week, we will have this data from the Competition Council and we will monitor very clearly also from the processors how much food leaves the processing units and what prices they have on the shelf,” the minister added.

AGERPRES