Farmers held a demonstration and gave away their crops outside a Lidl store in Dunaharaszti last Friday. With the demonstration, they aimed to call attention to dumping prices introduced by Lidl, the latest retail chain that started operations in Hungary recently.

György Vámos, chief secretary of the National Retail Association, said the dispute could be best solved by reviewing current regulations, which do not make it easy to detect the banned practice of selling under purchase price.

Vámos added, however, that neither Lidl nor other retail chains can be accused of abusing dominant market position, since no current player in this market has dominant position compared to the others.

Antal Sákán, one of the protesting farmers’ leaders, said producing a kilo of cabbage costs HUF 35, while wholesalers pay only HUF 20 and the store sells it for HUF 11 in order to increase the number of its shoppers. However, he added, this practice is against Hungary’s law on agriculture activities, which ban the sale of goods under purchase price.

The “Self-protecting Movement of Hungarian Farmers and Consumers” called the attention of the Agriculture Ministry to this issue, but the Movement has received no response yet.
In the demonstration, 15-20 farmers of nearby lands were giving away carrots and cabbage to passers-by.