Government prosecutors reach settlement with mushroom growers' cooperative
PHILADELPHIA Consumers may find the prices of mushrooms coming down, now that a settlement has been reached with a growers' cooperative that has agreed to stop limiting supplies. The Justice Department is announcing a settlement with the Eastern Mushroom Marketing Cooperative in an anti-trust case. The cooperative controls about 90 percent of the common table mushrooms grown in the eastern United States.
It has agreed to stop buying and closing farms to limit supply and prop up prices. The growers have also agreed to take steps to allow competitors to resume mushroom farming in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Georgia.
The government alleged in its case that the mushroom cooperative agreed to set minimum prices for its members. That raised prices an average eight percent.
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