Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Sue Chetwin: Grocery Action Group lead on the Commerce Commission finding competition in the supermarket sector has not improved

Transcript

Sue Chetwin: Grocery Action Group lead on the Commerce Commission finding competition in the supermarket sector has not improved · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: No meaningful improvement in the grocery sector. This is the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: competition issue. After two years. This is despite the ComCom reports,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the market studies, the Grocery Commissioner being appointed and up
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and running. The first annual report from the ComCom into
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the sector has been released and it basically says nothing
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: meaningful has happened. So Chetwyn is with the Grocery Action Group.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: She's with me this morning, So great to have you
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: on the show.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So are we ever going to fix the issue?
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: OK? I think it is possible to fix the issue,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: but structural change has to occur. So I guess the
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: government has to sort of bite metal here and say
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: we need more regulations to do something about the state
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: of our industry. So, you know, we have a jawopoly
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: that has more than eighty percent control of the basically
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: the food that we buy, and all of the rules
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: that they've put in place all very well meaning, but
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: have not worked. They have really just printed around the edge.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: So unless you make some structural change to encourage competition
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: or to allow competition to happen, then we're just going
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: to get more of the same.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Grocery commission to mention the one hundred sites the land
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: that the supermarkets are supposedly sitting on. You know, is
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: that to block competition or are they just land banking
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: because it's profitable, or are they car parks or storage facilities?
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: You know, is that number realistic?
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Look, I think the number represents all of the land
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: they own, so some of it may be legitimate for
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: say car parks, But the Comments Commission wouldn't have mentioned
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: it unless it has done the research to show that
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: it is basically the duopoly buying and that could be
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: useful for supermarkets the block competitors. And you know, just recently,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: you know, we had the you know, the big fine
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: for food stuffs for land provenance. So that's buying land
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and then putting on rules around it and selling it.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: But that those rules mean that no competing supermarkets could
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: be put on it. This is more of the same
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: that was.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: More historical, those charges that were brought right, this is
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: now apparently one hundred sites that they're sitting on tap.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: So what do you want to do? You want the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: government to force them to sell the land.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely or do something with it that looked like a
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: supermarket and not a vape tron and Also, I think
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: it needs to give the overseas you know office that
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: allows competitors, you know, potentially overseas competitors to come in,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: so they might serdden need to free up some rules
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: around there. They need to free up other regulations. They
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: definitely need to free up land. But I think critically,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: and the OECD also recommended this, they need to look
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: at forcing the supermarkets to sell some of what they own,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: so you know, maybe breaking up pack and Save and
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: New World. You know, maybe Warwors has to divest some
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: of its supermarkets as well. So unless you get that
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: structural change, you're not going to get more competition in
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: New Zealand.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: If you have the state interfering in a sector like
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: that to the extent that you're suggesting, wouldn't it put
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: off private enterprise from wanting to come and invest here
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: in the first place.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Well, look, I think we've just got a broken market here.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: And that's what you know, that's what regulation is for
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: in a way, is to make sure that we encourage competition.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: So why is it that New Zealand has eighty percent
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: of you know, the supermarket industry owned two supermarkets, where
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: and say Ireland a similar size had five suitmarkets or
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: with about twenty percent of the market. So New Zealand
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: has one of the most dense markets in the world,
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: so it doesn't get much worse. So at least you
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: have some government interference to protect consumers and suppliers. Then
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: it's just going to be more of the same if.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: You keep getting the same result, and we'll have another
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: report in another two years saying exactly the same thing
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: that nothing's changed. So thank you very much for your
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: time this morning, Suit Chetwyn who's with the Grocery Action Group.
• 4:33
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• 4:36
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