Spanish dairies hit by fines for price-fixing

Dairy companies have been fined €88m for fixing milk prices paid to Spanish farmers over thirteen years.

Eleven businesses, including the Spanish wings of dairy giants Danone, Nestlé and Lactalis, have been punished for anticompetitive practices by the country’s competition watchdog.

Authorities heard complaints of businesses sharing sensitive information about customers, trading terms and prices, as well as agreeing to split the market between them by fixing conditions and charges on farmers.

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Spain’s National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) called the allegations “a unique and ongoing offense” between at least 2000 and 2013.

The CNMC said the practices distorted the normal functioning of the market and had negative effects, with farmers the hardest hit.

On Wednesday, Spain’s farming minister Isabel García Tejerina said she respected the watchdog’s independence. But she said she was concerned about the effects of the large fine on the dairy industry and on farmers.

The full list of companies fined was: Danone, €23.2m (£16.7m); Corporación Alimentaria Peñasanta, €21.8m (£15.7m); Grupo Lactalis Iberia, €11.6m (£8.3m); Nestlé España, €10.6m (£7.6m); Puleva, €10.2m (£7.3m); Calidad Pascual, €8.5m (£6.1m); Senoble Ibérica, €930,000 (£671,000); Central Lechera Asturiana, €698,000 (£503,000) and Gremio de Industrias Lácteas de Cataluña, €200,000 (£144,000).

Spanish farmers produce about 6.5bn litres a year, less than 5% of European milk production.

The country’s dairy herd totalled 857,000 cows in 2013.

Just under 40% of the milk in Spain is marketed by 199 farmer-owned co-operatives.