Anticompetitive actions of the Agency of Material Reserves led to a shortage of wheat in the market and an increase in prices for bakery products, - Competition Council.
This conclusion was reached by the Competition Council after an investigation, initiated after a notification from the Information and Security Service of Moldova, about possible anticompetitive actions of the Agency of Material Reserves when distributing an impressive batch of food wheat from the state reserve of the 2016 harvest. April 2021, restriction of competition by the Agency for Material Reserves manifested itself in the form of unjustified disqualification of enterprises participating in the wheat distribution competition organized in July 2020.The Agency selectively and unreasonably applied various procedures for appointing beneficiary enterprises to which the milling wheat was to be distributed and also favored Ancom Agro by giving it privileges to operate in the wheat market. In addition, as the responsible authority, the agency did not respond to the problems caused by last year's drought, a fact confirmed, among other things, by providing belated responses to the applicants. Given that one of the goals of creating state reserves is to ensure the stable functioning of the national economy and protection in emergency situations, in the event of social or economic phenomena, etc. The Competition Council qualified the agency's actions as anti-competitive and stated that they caused the absence wheat on the market at affordable prices in the first half of 2021, respectively, some producers seeking wheat from state reserves increased the selling prices for bakery products. The Competition Council recommended changing the regulatory framework in terms of the method of issuing property from state reserves in order to comply with the principles of competition. The institution also called on economic agents and government agencies to comply with the principles of competition in their activities. //11.08.2021 — InfoMarket.
