[Anchor]

A prosecution investigation has revealed that major suppliers of pork to large supermarkets colluded for six years. The collusion drove prices up by more than 20%, with the total scale reaching 1.2 trillion won.

Reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan has the details.

[Reporter]

The pork display section of a large supermarket.

Shoppers continue to browse for pork belly and pork shoulder.

There were times when pork prices became so burdensome that the term "gold-pork" was coined due to soaring costs.

[Lim Sun-ja / Gangseo-gu, Seoul: I used to enjoy pork belly a lot. It was so expensive back then that people said imported beef was cheaper, so we just replaced it with beef and ate that.]

In April, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) caught nine pork distribution companies supplying large supermarkets engaging in collusive practices by setting lower limits on supply prices, so-called "floor prices," imposing 3.1 billion won in fines and requesting a prosecution investigation.

According to the prosecution's investigation, they colluded on pork supply prices hundreds of times over a six-year period from 2017 to 2023, driving market prices up by at least 20%.

Inside secret Telegram chat rooms created for the collusion, they shared floor prices for items such as pork belly and pork shoulder by category, and conversations were captured where they all answered "yes" in agreement to questions like, "How about raising prices compared to last week's unit price?"


When the FTC investigation began, they deleted the secret Telegram chat rooms while destroying evidence and preparing for the investigation by telling each other, "Just say you don't know" and "If you deny it, it's over."

[Lee Jung-ho / Chief of Criminal Division 6, Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office: After establishing a communication network for collusion, when a person in charge changed, they handed over the collusive practices to their successor, and when a new company started supplying, they even made that company join the collusion...]

Estimating that the scale of the collusion reached 1.2 trillion won over the past six years, the prosecution indicted six pork distributors and 12 executives and employees on charges of violating the Fair Trade Act.

(Photo: Yonhap News)
(Reported by Joo Yong-jin | Video by Choi Hye-ran)