Report: Group Illegally Pumped Up Spud Prices
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(IDAHO FALLS, ID) – The United Potato Growers of America has been named in a lawsuit by a U.S. wholesale grocer for allegedly running an illegal price-fixing cartel for nearly a decade. The Associated Wholesale Grocers also named Idaho State Rep. Dell Raybould of Rexburg in the suit. The group alleges that spud farmers banded together in 2004 to illegally inflate prices by reducing the number of acres planted and destroying potatoes, all to restrict availability and drive up prices. Raybould counters that farmers haven’t violated any anti-trust laws.