September 3 2002, 10:24 Interfax-Ukraine

Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee to further control bakery products prices

Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has enough experience and techniques to control prices on food markets, the Committee's Head Oleksiy Kostusev has declared.

He said that thanks to check-ups of bread-baking enterprises, performed by the Committee last year, retail prices for bread were lowered by 16 percent over the country on average. The number of abuses at these enterprises dropped as well.

Kostusev told that inspections had been caused by the fact that, despite the large crop and low cost-price of grain, retail prices for bread in many regions were not lowered, and in some regions were even increased.

In the course of inspection it was revealed, in particular, that owners of the holdings, possessing some bread-baking plants, sold their own flour to these plants at artificially increased prices, which entailed overshoots of the end product cost-price. The persons, guilty in such abuses, were fined.

Mr. Kostusev noted that this year the Committee again would not allow anybody using their privileged monopoly position in the market and abusively raising consumer prices for bread and bakery products.