Dairy, however, competing dairies are used to exchanging collections from their respective suppliers, to optimize their tours and thus reduce their charges.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
The Competition Authority announced Friday, November 18, that it had carried out the day before descents from four major French milk players, whose number one, Lactalis, suspected “of having implemented anti -competitive practices” in collection Cow’s milk. “At this stage, these interventions obviously do not prejudge the guilt of the companies concerned [for] the alleged practices, which only an instruction on the merits will allow to establish,” added the authority in a statement.
“There have been seizures of documents at Sodiaal, Savencia, Eurial and Lactalis,” an industrialist concerned, expressed under the cover of anonymity, told Agence de Anonymat, confirming Figaro information . “We confirm the visit of the Competition Authority in the premises of Eurial (…) in Nantes,” a spokesman for the Normand Agrial cooperative group told AFP. Eurial is the dairy branch of Agrial. Sodiaal, the first French dairy cooperative, which collects 20 % of French milk, also confirmed information to AFP. 2> “Exchanges of good processes”
Solicited, Lactalis did not wish to comment and Savencia did not respond immediately. The giant Danone, on the other hand, told AFP not having received the visit of the authorities.
According to the latter, the Competition Authority looks at “a principle that has existed for decades which consists in optimizing the collection tour”. The dairies frequently collect the milk of a breeder present nearby, even if it is under contract with a more distant competitor, who is responsible for remunerating it. The transformers are then reimbursed with each other.
“The more short the collection, the more you minimize health risks”, defends the industrialist, for whom the practice also has an “ecological” interest by the limitation of the kilometers traveled by the trucks. This also allows breeders to choose the industrialist who will pay him, according to this source. On its website, the interprofession of Cniel milk speaks of “exchanges of good processes between the dairy”.
The Competition Authority notes that “undertaken companies” can manifest themselves with its “Clémence program”: companies that denounce their past or current membership of an agreement can benefit from favorable treatment, with “Total or partial immunity of the fined fines”.