[Anchor]

Major companies have been caught colluding for over seven years on the prices of starch, an ingredient widely used in products ranging from snacks and bread to steel and printing paper. They now face record-breaking fines exceeding 700 billion won.

Reporter Chae Heesun has the story.

[Reporter]

This is a photograph of evidence of collusion secured by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC).

Written on the blackboard are the planned price increases for various products, including regular starch, glucose, and starch syrup, broken down by company.

The KFTC announced that four companies—Daesang, Sajo CPK, Samyang Corporation, and CJ CheilJedang—colluded on the prices and timing of sales for starch and starch sweeteners to their clients.

Thirteen instances of collusion were confirmed between May 2018 and October 2025, with sales related to the collusion amounting to approximately 6.05 trillion won.

These companies hold market shares of 96% and 86% in the starch and starch sweetener markets, respectively. Due to the nature of the large-scale facility industry, it is difficult for new competitors to enter, allowing these firms to maintain their market dominance for the past 20 years.

Although the government applied a 0% tariff rate on imported corn, the main raw material for starch sweeteners, to stabilize prices, these companies were quick to raise sales prices when international corn prices rose and minimized price reductions when costs fell.

In this manner, the average sales price of starch sweeteners, which was 559 won per kilogram at the start of the collusion, surged by over 73% to 971 won by November 2022.

[Nam Dong-il / Vice Chairperson, Korea Fair Trade Commission: Despite the reduction in costs, their operating profits improved. Ultimately, the damage caused by the collusion was passed on to downstream businesses, distributors, and, by extension, the final consumers.]

The KFTC has imposed a record-breaking fine of 747.6 billion won on the four companies and has ordered them to report their price changes to the commission every six months for the next three years.

Furthermore, during the investigation, the KFTC also uncovered suspicions of price-fixing regarding starch sweetener byproducts used for livestock feed and cooking oil ingredients, and has issued additional examination reports to three of the companies, excluding CJ CheilJedang.

Reported by Lee Jae-young | Video by Jo Mu-hwan | Graphics by Lee So-jeong
Produced by SBS Digital News