EU regulators will be looking into a suspected cartel of banana wholesalers before the end of the year, news agencies have reported.
The regulators are expected to target the five biggest banana companies - Chiquita, Del Monte and Dole of the United States, plus Noboa of Ecuador and Fyffes of Ireland - on suspicions that they ran an illegal cartel for some five years, EU officials have said.
Two years ago, the European Commission carried out unannounced inspections at banana and pineapple importers in the UK, Belgium, Germany and Ireland.
According to the wire reports, the Commission alleged the companies of having “shared confidential data about volumes and prices” of imported bananas to fix prices at artificially high levels and divide the lucrative EU market among themselves.
After a two-year investigation, Commission suspicions on bananas are believed to be more concrete and the companies involved may be sent formal charge sheets as a first move towards potential fines - which precedent suggests could reach 10 per cent of annual sales.
Those firms involved would have the opportunity to defend themselves.
The companies will then have several months to defend themselves.
Fyffes told FPJ it would make no comment.
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