Food Price Control / State Comptroller's Spokesperson
Against the background of the large-scale price increases in the market, which include Strauss, Shastowicz, Sugat, and the announcement by a diplomat of its intention to raise prices in 2024, along with the incompetence of Competition Commissioner Michal Cohen, sources in the Economy Ministry are calling for her removal from the position.
"The Competition Commissioner continues during the winter sleep while monopolies and cartels continue to raise prices and celebrate the Israeli public," the sources said. "All the tools at the disposal of the Competition Commissioner are not being utilized, she does not even open a minimal examination to understand whether there was price coordination through the media. It is incomprehensible how the public has been abandoned in the hands of a competition commissioner who is busy maintaining monopolies instead of the public interest."
The sources call for Cohen's dismissal: "The Competition Commissioner must be removed as soon as possible, otherwise it will not be possible to fight the price increases. The government is helpless in the face of price increases because all the authority is in the hands of the Competition Commissioner, who does nothing."
Cohen and Barkat. Winter Sleep/Image Processing, Jonathan Zindel, Haim Goldberg/Flash 90
As is well known, the problem of the cost of living in Israel continues to intensify under the cover of the war, with manufacturers and marketers raising prices significantly, and only recently a State Comptroller's report found that food prices are 51% more expensive than in EU countries and about 37% more expensive than in OECD countries.
Food and toiletries importers in Israel enjoy "exceptional profitability" in the absence of sufficient competition, especially the ten largest importers, who together hold a common market share exceeding 50% of the entire food and consumer goods industry.
Despite all this, the price committees did not examine the introduction of new products into supervision in 2018-2022 and did not recommend increasing supervision of products, which could have eased the cost of living.
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Supermarket. Prices in Israel are 51% more expensive compared to EU/Flash 90, Jonathan Zindel
As you may recall, Strauss reported this morning that it is raising the prices of 25% of the company's products, which include, inter alia, some of the sweets, salty, hummus, Yad Mordechai olive oil, chocolate milk and others. In addition, the company will lay off about 150 employees.
Among the products that will become more expensive are olive oil with an increase of 25%, chocolate bars (up to 14%), chocolate bars (up to 9%), baked goods (up to 14%), various sweets (up to 14%), chocolate and cocoa by 10%, coffee by 12%, hummus, tahini, confitures and Quaker (up to 7%), and peanuts, Cheetos and Doritos with an increase of up to 9%.
The retail price revision will take effect in early February when consumers feel it in their pockets.
Beyond this increase, the largest importers are already in the midst of a wave of price increases that remain unanswered by the state: Last month, Shastowicz, one of the two largest food importers, announced a price increase of about 15% on average in February, on Palmolive, Ajax, Slim Delis and Colgate, also raising the price of its cans by more than .10%. Beit Hashita increases its olives and olive oil by an average of 11%, and absorbs its sugar and legumes by 40%.
Among the other outrageous things whose price has risen is vegetables. An examination conducted by the Retail Research Institute shows that in the past year, the prices of the basic basket of vegetables, which constitute 15% of our consumption in the supermarket, have risen by 33.5%. At the top of the list were potatoes, whose average price increased by 57%, followed by zucchini which increased by 47%, eggplant and carrots by 44%, white cabbage by 41%, tomatoes by only 35%, red and white onions by 32%, beets by 24% and peppers by 19%.
- More on the subject:
- Michal Cohen
- Nir Bareket
- Prices
- Cost of Living