Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark says the Government wants "consumers getting fair prices" at the checkout after a petition was launched calling on him to bring about stronger competition in the grocery sector.
It comes after the Commerce Commission completed a market study earlier this year which found food prices are too high and competitors wanting to enter the supermarket sector face significant challenges.
On Tuesday Clark told media: "The Commerce Commission's findings were very clear that the supermarkets are making excess profits and they make a number of recommendations to improve competition, I've said that I'm willing to consider going further."
On Tuesday Consumer NZ launched a petition calling on Clark to take action on the grocery sector in order to bring about stronger competition.
In response to this Clark said: "I was pleased to see that Consumer NZ is out there representing the interests of consumers, that's their role but it highlights how important it is to get this response right.
READ MORE: Consumer NZ launches petition to combat high grocery prices
"This is a real issue for New Zealanders and people are paying a lot because of the global inflation situation, because of the war in Ukraine and the effect on fuel prices and supply chains. The Government is very keen to see that we can act to make things easier on consumers," Clark said.
The petition had more than 24,000 signatures as of 12.45pm on Tuesday.
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