“Injustice to farmers”: Allegations against Coop factory Swissmill

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Farmers in Switzerland are angry. While they work hard in their field, others skim the profits: This is actually the criticism of Stefan Flückiger, President of Fair Markets Switzerland (FMS).

The association, which says it fights for fair prices in agriculture, established a reporting center for “market abuse” for this purpose. According to Flückiger’s testimony, explosive information has been received from farmers and small or medium-sized mill operators in the last few months.

Grain farmers are said to pay very high contributions

The FMS president said that the association is following this information. And in fact: “We have strong evidence that grain farmers are forced to pay extremely high contributions to large Swiss export companies such as Nestlé and biscuit manufacturers.”

To compete abroad, Swiss flour needs to be made cheaper. Therefore, companies receive so-called export contributions when they export products made with it. Farmers pay most of these contributions. The higher the price of flour in this country, the more subsidies they will have to give to exporting companies.

Exporting companies will enrich themselves

The FMS association summarized its criticisms in a previously unpublished report available to Blick. Thus, there is some evidence to suggest that grain farmers are paying three to four million francs more per year to export companies, as Flückiger suspected due to “too high reported flour prices”. The reports come from large manufacturers such as Swissmill, which is owned by Coop, or Groupe Minoteries, which works closely with Migros.

If mills actually report too high a flour price, as the Fair Markets Alliance suspects, this will result in export companies collecting excessive export contributions, to the detriment of grain farmers.

Complaint will be filed next week

According to Flückiger, the association was presented with offers from large factories proving that they offered industrial customers such as Nestlé prices up to 15 percent lower than the price they report to the federal government, which calculates the price of Swiss flour, according to Flückiger.

FMS plans to lodge a complaint with the Competition Commission next week. Flückiger: “We demand that Comco analyze the bread grains market and clarify whether antitrust law has been violated.”

In particular, Comco needs to examine “whether major mills Swissmill and Groupe Minoteries are abusing their market power.” Comco is leaving it open whether it will take action on this issue.

The charges were denied

Coop, Swissmill and Groupe Minoteries refer to the umbrella association of Swiss millers, also at Blick’s request. He talks about “massive false allegations.” Factories reported the exact prices the federal government demanded; Prices were not set too high. They do not directly benefit from export contributions; These go to exporters. Among the exporting companies, there are also small and medium-sized companies, many of which also receive export contributions. The fact that exporters do not fare well in this system is also revealed by Nestlé’s recent decision to move a relevant part of its ready-made dough production abroad from Wangen SZ.

The Federal Bureau of Agriculture, which is responsible for setting flour prices, emphasizes that it remains true to its legal mandate: prices are weighted according to the quantities sold. Discounts such as volume discounts are also taken into account.

Flückiger contradicts the statements of the Federal Agriculture Office

Flückiger stands by the accusations of the Fair Markets Association: “Federal statistics do not do justice to market reality. The millers who contact us are competitors (of the big mills; ed.) and therefore they know the prices. “A small pizzeria or bakery pays much more than a large industrial customer.”

Small companies that do not buy in large quantities have nothing to do with the effective price of flour, says Flückiger. Big companies matter a lot: Regarding false claims, he says: “Our commitment to greater transparency is clearly not appreciated.”

Source :Blick