OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2011. The programme of “Competition Day” in Rostov-on-Don included a workshop “Ensuring Food Supply Security–Antimonopoly Approaches”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Opening remarks were made by Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov, who welcomed the attendees and wished them productive work.

Director of the Investigations Department, Spain’s National Competition Commission, Clara Guzman Zapater, talked about the influence of horizontal links between agricultural producers upon competition on the markets of agricultural products.

The Chief Executive Counselor at Hungarian Competition Authority Peter Sukosd supported his colleague from Spain and elaborated on the issue.

Paul Csiszar, representing the European Commission, focused on food products supply chain and supporting competitive environment, giving an example of the European Union.

The Deputy Chairman of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Competition Protection, Boris Parsegov talked about an antimonopoly approach to regulating relations between agricultural producers – suppliers and consumer that are large infrastructure companies.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service was represented by Deputy Head of the Department for Control over Chemical Industry and Agro-Industrial Complex, Irina Yepiphanova.

She outlined the measures used by Russia in order to achieve food security.

“Today in Russia, unfortunately, import of some products exceeds production by domestic producers”, concluded Ms. Yepiphanova.

According to Irina Yepiphanova, FAS fulfills important tasks – improving the mechanisms of market regulation in order to create favourable environment and monitoring the market along the whole chain from production to distribution.

“Due to the last year draught, the Central FAS Office and its regional offices have tightened control over food products markets. From August 2010 to August 2011 they initiated over 900 cases upon the signs of antimonopoly violations”, commented Ms. Yepiphanova.

Then she discussed mergers on the markets of milk and dairy products and gave a detailed account of the transaction between “Danone” and “Unimilk” that formed “Unimilk-Danone”.

“Only price competition will allow milk producers to stay on the market of dairy products”, commented Ms. Yepiphanova.

In conclusion Irina Yepiphanova stated: “Food security is a goal for the global community in general. Russia will find its place in integrated international cooperation”.

Deputy Director of the Market Research Department, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, Tatiana Kuleshova, developed the theme of large mergers using examples from practice of the Antimonopoly Committee.

The audience was especially interested in a discussion regarding regulation of relations between suppliers of agricultural products and retail networks. Presentations were made by: Chief Executive Counselor at Hungarian Competition Authority Peter Sukosd; General Director of the National Agency for Protection of Competition, the Moldova Republic, Viorica Kerare; General Director of Austrian Competition Authority, Theodor Tanner; and the Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade, Timophei Nizhegorodtsev.

At the beginning of his presentation Timophei Nizhegorodtsev told how retail trade developed. “Such development of retail networks happened due to globalization of information technologies. Costs control is phenomenal. Small and medium business cannot resist the pressure, it either force them to retreat to specialised trading or move to such locations where retailers are not satisfied with the population’s ability to pay”, explained the speaker.

Next, he described development mechanisms for trading networks and commented on the Federal Law “On the Basics of State Regulation of Trading Activities in the Russian Federation”. “The law is not related to determination of market power or market share. It requires that suppliers and trading networks observe particular norms of Articles 9, 13 and 14 of the Law on Trade”, pointed out Timophei Nizhegorodtsev.

To execute the instructions of the President and the Government of the Russian Federation in order to enforce the Law on Trade, the antimonopoly bodies monitor how the Law is complied with. “Based on the results of monitoring compliance with the Law on Trade, in Q2 2011 the antimonopoly bodies initiated 21 administrative cases”, stated the Head of FAS Department.

Summing up, Timophei Nizhegorodtsev outlined FAS proposals for amendments to the Law on Trade.