[Malcolm Armsteen]

Yup

[kreuzberger]

It dawned on me this morning that something might have changed.

The way that general markets work: you charge as much as you can for your product or service, knowing that your customer can afford it and that it will not be any more expensive than visible, available competitor offers.

But what if there is an informal, entirely spontaneous cartel? Almost everywhere and particularly the one that operates within the sector of this morning's regular tinned tomatoes?

Last year, they were priced at around 40¢ a pop. They now can't be touched for less than 70¢. Virtually nothing has changed in their production cost as there is little or no heating when they are grown on Italy hillsides. Workers' rewards haven't increased. Granted, the manufacture in the cannery will be impacted upon by the post-Covid disruption in raw materials markets.

Funnily enough, the price of posh brands like "Mutti" has barely shifted. They are still sitting at around 1.30 € a can.

This tells me that the mood might have changed. What happens if entire markets passively but collectively decide, "fuck it lads, let's ramp up the price and see what we can get away with"?

Without a doubt, the Brexit impact on the island is a major factor but it still doesn't justify the massive shelf-edge increases. You can also drop as much ordnance on Ukraine as you like but you'll never get to the 5-fold increase in UK energy prices.

My conclusion is simply that market participants are taking the piss.

The penny / cent / zloty is dropping.