Six Pork Distributors Indicted in South Korea for Price-Fixing Cartel

South Korean prosecutors have indicted six major pork distributors, including the country's top two suppliers, for allegedly colluding to fix prices for six years. The scheme, which ran from August 2017 to November 2023, is accused of artificially inflating the price of pork supplied to major supermarkets by over 20%, costing consumers approximately 1.2 trillion won (about $860 million).

Investigators revealed that the distributors began sharing pricing information to maintain high wholesale costs after a major supermarket started soliciting bids in 2017. The collusion intensified in November 2021 when participants created a private Telegram group for systematic price fixing. Prosecutors found evidence that some employees attempted to destroy evidence when the Fair Trade Commission began its investigation.

The indictment alleges that this price-fixing cartel significantly harmed consumer prices. Following the exposure of the scheme in November 2023, supermarket prices for pork belly dropped by 25.5% year-on-year in 2024, even as overall inflation persisted. Prosecutors stated that the inflated supermarket prices serve as a benchmark for smaller retailers, thus negatively impacting the entire pork market and contributing to higher overall pork prices for consumers.

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The increase in major supermarket pork prices becomes a factor in the rise of overall pork prices, and it has had a serious negative impact on stabilizing pork prices.