The U.S. Federal Trade Commission likewise recently found that big grocers used the pandemic as a smokescreen to pad their profits at the public’s expense.

“The bread price-fixing scandal a few years ago showed how a lack of competition enables price manipulation and hurts consumers. Canada’s Competition Bureau recently announced they are launching an investigation into the owners of Loblaws and Sobeys for alleged anti-competitive conduct.

       In the United States, there is also strong evidence that the private sector has been profiteering on supply chain issues and inflation. 

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission likewise recently found that big grocers used the pandemic as a smokescreen to pad their profits at the public’s expense.

            In our analysis, only three per cent of the over 200 explanations for food price changes point to grocer actions 
                 or other agency in the private sector as driving price increases. 

This reflects a tendency to portray food prices as erratic and overwhelmingly opaque.

       Other issues — such as the over-reliance on fossil fuels across the supply chain — also go unmentioned.

Without rigorous and transparent analysis, we’re left with an incomplete picture of why food is so expensive and what we can do about it.

What we need is a new approach. Food is a human right, but a unique one in that we rely on the private sector to provision it. We should expect a higher standard than with other consumer goods, and the private sector has arguably not earned the benefit of the doubt given their history of price fixing.

           These reports also rarely consider the decisions that grocers and other private sector entities have on food prices. 
            Increased consolidation and concentration in the grocery sector is a structural issue that deserves scrutiny.

https://theconversation.com/why-are-grocery-bills-so-high-a-new-study-looks-at-the-science-behind-food-price-reporting-230086