Concentration in food retailing and anti-competitive practices in Turkey

As seen in many developing countries, concentration and globalization have substantially increased in food retailing in Turkey. Foreign direct investment, incentives to reduce informal economy through modern retailing, income, education, economic crises and urbanization are the main drivers for structural change of retail supply chain. Market shares of global retailers have increased in general and also food sub-sectors. The restructuring and concentration in food retailing have changed the marketing system and conditions facing firms. Concentration is also expected to increase in the future. With increasing concentration, anti-competitive practices has appeared in the food supply chain in Turkey: listing fees, shelf fees, advertising and announcing fee, discount pressure, unconditional product restoration and forces for own private label product package have been commonly used anti-competitive practices. Based on the interviews and literature survey and news gathered from newspapers, it is found that several anti-competitive practices are executed by supermarket in Turkey when these practices are compared with the anticompetitive practices determined by the United Kingdom Competition Commission (2000). It is observed that at the margin 16 of 52 practices are executed by supermarkets against the suppliers. Moreover, price flexing and sales below cost can be reflecting the monopoly power in consumer market segment.