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Victoria Mindova

60% of the price of stock-breeding products in Greece depends on the fodder price, said the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Competitiveness Dinos Rovlias. If farmers have to pay more for fodders, the price of meat, eggs, milk and all other animal products produced in Greece is increasing.

In its efforts to return to competitive production and export Greece came to the decision to monitor the fodder prices in the country. If producers in the industry want to raise the selling prices of their fodders they are obliged to notify the Ministry at least two months earlier. The state institution, in turn, is obliged to assess whether the increase is justified and then to approve it or reject it.

According to Ruvlyas, the price of animal fodder has risen by at least 50%. This prompted the Ministry to monitor the relevant market. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture aims to make the fodder less dependent on imports of primary ingredients that make the end product. 95% of the used animal feed is mixed, packaged and sold domestically by licensed companies that are not more than ten, Ruvlyas said. The share of filler fodder is only 5%, which is an extremely small quantity to be included in the program to monitor pricing.

The Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development Milena Apostolakis said that today 50% of the traded fodder is the result of imports. At the same time, prices of primary goods have increased several times in the period after 2008 as a result of the general economic stagnation in recent years.

The details of the ministerial decision were announced at a press conference held exclusively for the issue of the fodder prices and their impact on the end price of the goods. Inevitably the first question that journalists raised was whether the Ministry has not registered a violation of the competition law, which rules the equitable functioning of the market under the rules of the free supply and demand. "The interest of the Ministry in the pricing of the fodder suggests that most likely there is illegal competition and monopoly formation of cartels. Is it true?" asked one of the journalists in the hall. The Deputy Minister Dinos Rovlias first hesitated and then neither confirmed, nor denied it. "I'm not sure," he said, stressing that he could not recall all the cases "hanging" with the competition committee to his ministry.
 
Some economic analysts have commented that this whole plan largely resembles the return of the planned economy, popular in the Eastern-European block in the recent past, not the market one which the Greek economy is trying to be recently. While the debate about market liberalization and increased competition is raging in the public opinion, the interference in the pricing of the output of private enterprises, which do not infringe competition law, is perceived more as populism.

Milena Apostolakis from the Ministry of Agriculture said that the soils and crops in Greece are being studied and the results will be ready in about two months. "The goal is to reduce the dependence of Greece on imports of crops that are essential ingredients in fodders and to encourage local production," said the Deputy Minister of Agricultural Development. She said that after the detailed analysis of the results, the government will give incentives to farmers in the country to sue fodder crops that are imported now. Milena Apostolakis, however, failed to answer GRReporter’s question of whether major companies in the sector will respond to the ministerial initiative and will prefer what is produced in Greece. It is not clear whether these products will have more competitive prices and better quality than the imported fodder.