Paying too much for veggies? Here’s the twist in the tale

2 weeks ago 3

Opinion

September 3, 2025 — 3.37pm

Court action mounted this week against four of the country’s largest vegetable suppliers for alleged price-fixing blows a hole in the established science that supermarkets have been driving up prices for vegetables sitting on their shelves.

The competition watchdog has flipped the script, claiming that a coterie of suppliers – the so-called cauliflower cartel or the celery swindlers – could be responsible for some of the price pain on the produce aisles.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is alleging these big suppliers colluded to fix the price or supply terms in dealing with Aldi, which could have led to higher shelf prices.

The price-fixed veggies in the spotlight include broccoli, cauliflower, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, Brussels sprouts or zucchini over a six-year period to 2024. If the ACCC’s legal action is successful, it will be an inconvenient truth for the swathe of politicians who had pushed the pre-election message that greedy, price-gouging supermarkets had to be stopped.

The ACCC’s final report from its own inquiry, released in March, found no evidence that Australian supermarkets were price gouging. But it did point out that the Australian market was highly concentrated (no surprise there) and more importantly, many suppliers were concerned they were being exploited by the supermarket giants.

To be sure, the thousands of small farmers that supply fruit and vegetables to the retail market are doing so legally, and are in an asymmetric negotiating position with the large supermarkets. But it has been a convenient narrative to place the blame for the cost of food and groceries exclusively in the laps of the supermarkets, without bothering with the nuances of other issues in the supply chain.

Perfection Fresh Australia, the nation’s second-largest fresh vegetable supplier; Hydro Produce Australia, a fresh-produce wholesaler and grower based in NSW; Victoria-based wholesaler Veli Velisha Fresh Produce and Velisha National Farms; and Victoria-based M. Fragapane & Sons, which trades under the name Fragapane Farms, were those named in the ACCC’s court action.

Between them, these suppliers operate in most Australian states and potentially face millions of dollars in fines if the ACCC’s allegations hold up in the Federal Court.

Velisha Farms said it would defend itself against the watchdog’s allegations.

“The allegations being made by the ACCC are very serious, and we do not accept them. We have retained lawyers and intend on defending these proceedings,” it said.

It has been a convenient narrative to place the blame for the cost of food and groceries exclusively in the laps of the supermarkets.

The downside for the ACCC is that it has provided scant detail of how the alleged cartel activity took place – nothing about how these vegetable farmers may have communicated with each other or whether there was a whistleblower involved.

The regulator said only that it involved “agile” pricing, in which suppliers were required to submit weekly quotes. Aldi uses agile pricing for vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower and iceberg lettuce.

The legal move on the big vegetable farmers is just one of two cartel actions the ACCC has in its crosshairs this week.

The ACCC has taken aim at some crane-hire companies.

On Wednesday, the regulator took aim at a clutch of four Sydney-based crane-hire companies that it alleges breached cartel laws by agreeing not to supply services to certain customers or certain sites.

Two of these operators were also accused of price fixing. The ACCC alleges the four companies used WhatsApp to identify certain building sites or customers and make arrangements between themselves that some or all of these companies would not supply cranes to these sites or customers.

It is alleged the senior executives co-ordinated their actions using WhatsApp chat groups named the “Crane Companies” and “Big 3″.

The alleged conduct would have impacted building and infrastructure projects across the Sydney area from 2020 to 2024.

From cranes to cauliflowers, the ACCC’s anti-cartel action is a moveable feast – so to speak. And at a time when the high price of food and rising building costs have been key planks of the cost of living crisis, both cases highlight the complicated nature of the processes that end up slugging consumers.

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