6 pork distributors indicted for fixing prices

Six pork distributors, including Dodram Food and five others, have been indicted for price-fixing over a six-year period, according to prosecutors in Seoul. The scheme, which targeted pork supplied to major retailer E-Mart Inc., allegedly ran from August 2017 to November 2023, involving 1.2 trillion won (US$842 million) worth of pork.

Prosecutors allege that the six companies and 12 officials conspired to rig prices after E-Mart decided not to disclose bidding prices in an attempt to encourage competition. The price-fixing is estimated to have increased supermarket pork prices by at least 20 percent, driving up E-Mart's purchases of 1.2 trillion won worth of pork during the same period.

Following the scheme's discovery in November 2023, pork prices in supermarkets dropped due to competition, while wholesale pork prices rose from 5,134 won per kilogram in 2023 to 5,239 won the following year.

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