German regulators raid major coffee importers

Jul 3, 2008, 15:50 GMT

Bonn - German regulators raided the offices of major coffee importers on Thursday, making public an inquiry into alleged collusion to fix the price of Germany's most popular hot beverage.

Silke Kaul, a spokeswoman for the Bonn-based Federal Cartel Office, did not name the companies but said the list included leading companies in the coffee-roasting trade. She said the suspicions dated back to 'at least to 2004.'

Most German coffee is factory-roasted and sold in branded packaging without the bean variety or nation of origin disclosed.

The two top brands, Hamburg-based Tchibo and Munich-based Dallmayr, both confirmed they had been visited by the investigators.

The Cartel Office normally does not seek documents at business offices unless its suspicions have become 'concrete' through evidence. The federal regulator has never investigated the coffee trade before. Collusion to fix prices breaches German law.

A spokeswoman for the Alois Dallmayr company said, 'We are cooperating with the authorities to fully resolve these allegations.'

She did not comment on the substance of the claims, but added that coffee was 'very cheap' in Germany, with the price practically unchanged for the past decade.

A Tchibo statement said that company had answered all the questions from the Office and was fully cooperating with the inquiry.

At home and at work the Germans drink far more coffee than tea, mainly preferring a diluted form of the beverage which is generally strained through paper filters in electric coffee-making machines.