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Israeli Importers Committed to Limits on Retail Prices to Receive Duty Free Fresh Meat Shipments

October 16, 2017 from the JewishPress:

"For the first time ever, Israel’s Ministry of the Economy and Industry will introduce a competitive process in allocating fresh meat import quotas – based on a maximum consumer price – aiming to ensure that the benefit from duty-free imports is rolled from importers to consumers.
"The quota committee of the Ministry of the Economy and Industry is embarking on this new competitive process for the import of chilled, duty-free meat for 2018. In 2018, import quotas of 13,500 tons of chilled meat will be distributed, with the annual consumption of fresh meat in the retail market estimated at 20,000 tons.
"According to the new procedure, the quotas committee will rate bids based on the Bidder’s commitment to a maximum consumer price of 1 kg of fresh minced meat—the most popular fresh meat category. The lower the price per kg of fresh minced meat, the higher the bidder’s rating and their chances of receiving a larger import allocation."
"Since government has begun the allocation of duty-free quotas, two years ago, there have been significant changes in the fresh meat market: the move lowered fresh meat consumer prices by an average of 10%; increased competition in the market as new suppliers have entered; and the status of the two dominant domestic suppliers that controlled more than 80% of the market has been eroded."
"As a result, there has been a 20% increase in Israelis’ consumption of fresh meat, at the expense of a significant erosion in the consumption of aged meat, frozen meat, and processed meat."