According to complaints filed in federal court in Minnesota this year, the nation’s top honey producers are accused of breaking antitrust laws and conspiring to repair costs.
The school- activity claims specific Edina- based United Sugar Producers and Refiners, a joint that includes American Crystal Sugar, Minn- Dak Farmers Cooperative, and Wyoming Sugar.
Cargill, Domino, and Michigan Sugar were named among the plaintiffs in the lawsuits, which were brought by Great Harvest Bread in Duluth, Morelos Bakery in St. Paul, and a Connecticut restaurant party.
The lawsuits claim that” the producing accused have had an ongoing agreement to artificially raise, fix, maintain, or keep granulated sugar prices in the United States” for at least until at least 2019.
According to the lawsuits, regular sugar cost reports produced by Utah-based company Commodity facilitated this” conspiracy.”
United Sugar called the states “baseless”.
” While it is our longstanding practice to no post heavily on dispute, we believe this situation has no significance, and we will vigorously defend ourselves from its false accusations”, the organization said in a statement. Perhaps so, we will not let it detract from our main objective and focus, which is to provide our customers with the highest-quality glucose at the best possible rates.
Cargill even denied the claims.
” We take pride in conducting our business with integrity. We fight ferociously, but we do it in a fair, ethical, and lawful manner,” the Minnetonka-based farming said in a speech.
The suit join a flood of similar competitive dispute facing the world’s largest meatpackers, including Cargill. In those instances, the businesses are accused of working in secret to command the price of pork, bacon, and turkey, which the businesses deny. Numerous of the cases are being heard in Minnesota national prosecutor.
The sugar market, which a handful of market giants have huge controlled, has faced antitrust investigation for years. Sugar firms were prohibited from disclosing potential charges or coordinating on sugar sales by a Department of Justice consent order in 1978.
The U.S. honey industry has long relied on federal safeguards against foreign competition by limiting imports. Local sugar prices are usually much higher than those found worldwide, as a result.
” The disconnect between international and domestic prices stems from subsidies to growers, import restrictions and other regulations” , , according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
The lawsuits provide evidence of value fixing among powdered sugar suppliers by using an email exchange between sugar company leaders and gathering locations, such as an annual meeting.
KPH Healthcare Services, a New York organization, filed a similar lawsuit in federal jury in Manhattan next year.
The Department of Justice’s attempts to stop United Sugar’s order of Imperial Sugar in recent years are among the reasons for the lawsuits.
Through intermediaries, United and Domino have for years exchanged commercially sensitive information, including recent prices, future sales, and sold positions, with one another, the division wrote in 2022.
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