We know what the problem with the Supermarket duopoly is. We know how we could fix it. The real problem is that both major political parties keep repeating the neoliberal mantra that the ‘government should not get involved in the marketplace’ which makes them all talk but no do. Because a solution to the Supermarket problem,(amongst a raft of related issues we could solve) is staring them in the face - as I explain in my award winning documentary The Food Crisis which you can watch here.
Three years ago The Commerce Commission released the results of its market study into the Grocery Sector. They found the duopoly of Woolworths and Foodstuffs were making higher profits than in comparable overseas situations and that the two chains were not only in “muted” competition with each other, they were actively engaged in practices such as buying up land to prevent other competitors setting up shop near them.
Labour’s then Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs, David Clark, wagged his finger at the CEO’s of the 2 major grocery chains and told them to mend their ways or he’d consider taking drastic steps like breaking up the duopoly, because more competition was needed.
This week Finance Minister Nicola Willis wagged her finger at them saying she has “sought external advice on a possible break-up of the supermarket duopoly to help accelerate grocery competition.”
Yada,yada, yada…
I wonder how much she is paying her consultant for that external advice? Because I can tell her for free right now that breaking up Foodstuffs is neigh on impossible. Why? Because their stores are already individually owned.
Control of production lines, transport and warehousing is where the government could intervene, for example by setting up its own competitive food chain.
Neither of these neoliberal parties will consider such a solution of course, because neither are willing for the government to intervene in the marketplace. It’s against their neoliberal creed.
But there really is no reason why we could not have people owned co-operative supermarkets and food warehouses, as they do in for example Italy and Scotland.
Shortly after the Covid pandemic had abated I made a documentary on The Food Crisis that screened on Sky Open in which I looked into why our food costs so much and what we could do about it.
You can still watch it on Sky Go or on my Substack bryanbruce.substack.com
1 in every 5 children in New Zealand lives in a home where food is unavailable sometimes or often.
We are a nation of 5 million. By some estimates we produce enough food to feed 40 million people a year.
No one in our country should go hungry!
Let me be clear.
The Supermarket duopoly issue is just ONE factor in a chain of many that make our food expensive – and at every point we could make changes through government interventions that would make our food more affordable.
It’s time we democratized our food supply.
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