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Speaker 1: No meaningful improvement in the grocery sector. This is the

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Speaker 1: competition issue. After two years. This is despite the ComCom reports,

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Speaker 1: the market studies, the Grocery Commissioner being appointed and up

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Speaker 1: and running. The first annual report from the ComCom into

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Speaker 1: the sector has been released and it basically says nothing

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Speaker 1: meaningful has happened. So Chetwyn is with the Grocery Action Group.

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Speaker 1: She's with me this morning, So great to have you

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Speaker 1: on the show.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning.

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Speaker 1: So are we ever going to fix the issue?

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Speaker 2: OK? I think it is possible to fix the issue,

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Speaker 2: but structural change has to occur. So I guess the

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Speaker 2: government has to sort of bite metal here and say

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Speaker 2: we need more regulations to do something about the state

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Speaker 2: of our industry. So, you know, we have a jawopoly

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Speaker 2: that has more than eighty percent control of the basically

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Speaker 2: the food that we buy, and all of the rules

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Speaker 2: that they've put in place all very well meaning, but

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Speaker 2: have not worked. They have really just printed around the edge.

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Speaker 2: So unless you make some structural change to encourage competition

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Speaker 2: or to allow competition to happen, then we're just going

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Speaker 2: to get more of the same.

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Speaker 1: Grocery commission to mention the one hundred sites the land

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Speaker 1: that the supermarkets are supposedly sitting on. You know, is

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Speaker 1: that to block competition or are they just land banking

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Speaker 1: because it's profitable, or are they car parks or storage facilities?

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Speaker 1: You know, is that number realistic?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think the number represents all of the land

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Speaker 2: they own, so some of it may be legitimate for

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Speaker 2: say car parks, But the Comments Commission wouldn't have mentioned

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Speaker 2: it unless it has done the research to show that

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Speaker 2: it is basically the duopoly buying and that could be

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Speaker 2: useful for supermarkets the block competitors. And you know, just recently,

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Speaker 2: you know, we had the you know, the big fine

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Speaker 2: for food stuffs for land provenance. So that's buying land

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Speaker 2: and then putting on rules around it and selling it.

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Speaker 2: But that those rules mean that no competing supermarkets could

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Speaker 2: be put on it. This is more of the same

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Speaker 2: that was.

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Speaker 1: More historical, those charges that were brought right, this is

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Speaker 1: now apparently one hundred sites that they're sitting on tap.

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Speaker 1: So what do you want to do? You want the

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Speaker 1: government to force them to sell the land.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely or do something with it that looked like a

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Speaker 2: supermarket and not a vape tron and Also, I think

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Speaker 2: it needs to give the overseas you know office that

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Speaker 2: allows competitors, you know, potentially overseas competitors to come in,

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Speaker 2: so they might serdden need to free up some rules

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Speaker 2: around there. They need to free up other regulations. They

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Speaker 2: definitely need to free up land. But I think critically,

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Speaker 2: and the OECD also recommended this, they need to look

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Speaker 2: at forcing the supermarkets to sell some of what they own,

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Speaker 2: so you know, maybe breaking up pack and Save and

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Speaker 2: New World. You know, maybe Warwors has to divest some

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Speaker 2: of its supermarkets as well. So unless you get that

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Speaker 2: structural change, you're not going to get more competition in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: If you have the state interfering in a sector like

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Speaker 1: that to the extent that you're suggesting, wouldn't it put

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Speaker 1: off private enterprise from wanting to come and invest here

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Speaker 1: in the first place.

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I think we've just got a broken market here.

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Speaker 2: And that's what you know, that's what regulation is for

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Speaker 2: in a way, is to make sure that we encourage competition.

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Speaker 2: So why is it that New Zealand has eighty percent

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Speaker 2: of you know, the supermarket industry owned two supermarkets, where

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Speaker 2: and say Ireland a similar size had five suitmarkets or

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Speaker 2: with about twenty percent of the market. So New Zealand

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Speaker 2: has one of the most dense markets in the world,

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Speaker 2: so it doesn't get much worse. So at least you

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Speaker 2: have some government interference to protect consumers and suppliers. Then

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Speaker 2: it's just going to be more of the same if.

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Speaker 1: You keep getting the same result, and we'll have another

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Speaker 1: report in another two years saying exactly the same thing

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Speaker 1: that nothing's changed. So thank you very much for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning, Suit Chetwyn who's with the Grocery Action Group.

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