Summary

SAI Israel conducted an audit of the price control policy in the food industry and assessed the effectiveness of price controls, enforcement and tracking of control decisions. Auditors found a number of deficiencies. According to the audit results, various markets and segments in the food industry were still quite concentrated: the aggregate market share held by the ten most significant suppliers in the food industry was greater than 50% of the entire food and consumer products industry. Monitoring of the profitability and costs of the supervised products was not orderly conducted. Moreover, there were no explicit instructions and criteria for the application of price supervision measures for the public benefit nor a defined list of essential products and services across various industries of the economy, particularly in the food industry. SAI also found gaps in the execution of market surveys and monitoring of competition levels and prices of products under supervision, and suspected a lack of effectiveness in enforcement. Auditors recommended that that the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, and the Ministry of Economy collaborate with the Competition Authority, utilizing all their tools to address the cost of living through structural solutions such as expanding imports and, if necessary, consider the incorporation of price supervision as an interim solution until these structural solutions are expressed in increased competition.