The state Department of the Attorney General will partner with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to combat price gouging, but it is unclear what that work will entail.
In a statement Wednesday the USDA announced it is partnering with 31 attorneys general across the nation — including Hawaii’s — to develop ways to protect consumers from anticompetitive practices in food and agricultural supply chains.
Through this Agricultural Competition Partnership, participants hope to target problems such as price gouging, a lack of choices for consumers, and other problems. The partnership is funded with $15 million allocated from the American Rescue Plan, which can be provided to partners based on qualifications.
According to the USDA, the work by the Agriculture Department and state law enforcement officials will “ramp up enforcement of antitrust and consumer protection laws that will help stop conduct like price fixing or price gouging in grocery retail markets, meat and poultry processing and other agricultural markets.”
The USDA statement explains that the initiative will “enhance the capacity of state attorneys general to conduct on-the-ground assessments of competition and consumer issues, enhance coordination between federal and state agriculture and competition authorities, create new and more independent research programs, and ultimately result in fairer and competitive markets and more resilient supply chains.”
According to the USDA, participating states will use partnership funds to purchase new technologies, support larger-scale enforcement actions, conduct research and training, and more.
“By placing necessary resources where they are needed most and helping states identify and address anticompetitive and anti-consumer behavior, in partnership with federal authorities, through these cooperative agreements we can ensure a more robust and competitive agricultural sector,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.
What that will actually look like in Hawaii is still unclear. A representative of the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General stated Thursday that the initiative is still far too new for concrete plans to have taken shape.
“The Department of the Attorney General will be assessing how the department can best use the resources of the USDA Agricultural Partnership Program and looks forward to providing details in the future,” according to a statement from the department.
But it’s unclear whether price gouging is a problem in Hawaii.
Tina Yamaki, president of the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, said the realities of commerce in Hawaii, as well as more perceptive consumers, have prevented gouging from becoming a widespread issue in recent years.
“Maybe 10 to 15 years ago it would have been a bigger issue,” Yamaki said. “But now we have social media, people are going to call it out whenever they see it. Prices are honestly very competitive now.”
At the same time, Yamaki said that prices in Hawaii are more complicated than on the mainland because of the added cost of shipping goods to and between the islands.
When the price for a flat of bottled water goes up in the prelude for a tropical storm, she said, it may be perceived as price gouging, but is often just the result of factoring in shipping costs for bringing an in-demand item from across the sea.
“It might be happening more in other states, but I don’t see it here,” Yamaki said. “You know how it is in Hawaii, everyone knows each other.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.