Dairy plants of Tatarstan were found guilty of reducing milk prices

"The UFAS Commission of Tatarstan made a conclusion about the circumstances of the case for three dairy plants - "Zelenodolsky dairy plant", "Alabuga Sote" and "Azbuka Syra". All three manufacturers were found to be violators", said Yefimova in an interview with the correspondent of RBC-Tatarstan. According to her, “Dairy plant "Edelweiss"” (a branch of JSC "Danone Russia") and the company "Archa" are also suspected in the artificial reducing of prices. "The cases for the remaining two plants were deferred pending receipt of additional data", said Efimova.

As noted by the interviewee of RBC-Tatarstan, the participants of the dairy market have heard the conclusion of the Commission that there are signs of violations in the actions of the defendants. "After the conclusion, the defendants will have time to read it and make objections. For our part, we will study and consider these objections, and then make the final decision", Yefimova said.

Earlier, Tatarstan Antimonopoly agents monitored the purchase prices of raw milk in the country, having found a significant decrease in prices from December 2017 to February 2018. In an interview with RBC-Tatarstan, one of the experts of the dairy market noted that the reason for the fall in prices was not the collusion of producers, but the uncontrolled import of milk powder from some CIS countries and the price policy of traders, who, by the way, are in contact with the heads of districts. "Milk processors of Tatarstan acted in the market conditions, buying raw materials at the prevailing prices," the expert said.

It is interesting that in February 2018, the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan drew attention to the problem of import of milk powder to Tatarstan, having appealed to the Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev. "During 2017, a large volume of milk powder, butter, cheeses and cheese-like products were imported into the country, which led to an overstocking of the Russian consumer market. Many milk processing enterprises in other regions began to use milk powder instead of natural raw materials. Under these conditions, products made from natural milk, with the current purchase prices turned to be non - competitive in the market", - stated in the text of the document.

In their address, the deputies noted that the problem of reducing the purchase prices for milk is typical not only for Tatarstan, but also for many other regions of the Russian Federation.

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