Brandon baker calls for price controls on bread, says price-fixing practices date to 1960s

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This article was published 27/12/2017 (3063 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A baker in Brandon says there should be a controlled price for certain breads in light of recent allegations of industry-wide price-fixing.

Harold Kuipers from Kuipers Family Bakery said he has been calling for a guaranteed price for “eons,” similar to the dairy industry in Canada.

“I’ve been in business for 40 years, I actually wish — and so here’s where the bakers will get angry at me — I wish there was a fixed price on (white and brown) bread.”

Last week, it was revealed that the Competition Bureau was investigating allegations of bread price-fixing among several companies, including Canada Bread, Walmart, Sobeys, Metro and Giant Tiger.

George Weston Ltd. and Loblaw Companies Ltd. alerted the Competition Bureau of the 14-year-long scheme, which is alleged to have taken place between late 2001 to March 2015.

By bringing the allegations forward, both companies will receive immunity from criminal charges.

Kuiper, who runs one of the few remaining independent bakeries in Brandon, said the practice of price-fixing has gone on as far back as the late 1960s.

He said bakers would agree on a fixed price for white bread specifically whenever the cost of flour increased.

“It didn’t bother me,” Kuiper said. “We’ve all known it. Everybody’s known that.”

Kuiper said this was before his time in the industry, and although it may be an unpopular opinion, he supports a controlled price for bread across the board, for both large and small companies.

Dan Mazier, president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers of Manitoba, said when it comes to the impact bread price-fixing would have on wheat, it’s a lot more complicated.

“As far as processing and impacting the retail price, and how that trickles back to farmers, our wheat prices are set at the world stage,” Mazier said.

Manitoba, he said, exports at least 80 per cent of its wheat abroad and has only one flour mill. On the question of a controlled price for wheat, Mazier said the price of flour would have much more of an impact on the cost of bread.

However, he said that would fall on the processing side of the industry.

Although he never thought it would get to the stage of price-fixing, Mazier said it does speak to the concentration and amalgamation among companies, from fertilizers to the life sciences, and how that has become a concern in the agricultural community.

“Ultimately the consumer pays at the end of the day, he said.

But he did point to one lesson which can be learned from all of this. “If you want to get out of that system, I guess buy local … is the moral of the story,” Mazier said.

» mlee@brandonsun.com

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