On Moday, supermarket chains Automercado, Compra Bien, Megasuper, Perimercados, Pequeño Mundo, Pricesmart and Walmart signed a Code of Good Commercial Practices, together with the Costa Rican Chamber of the Food Industry (CACIA).
The objective of this code is to seek transparency in commercial relationships, as well as more and better businesses between companies, their suppliers and the main retailers of supermarkets.
José Manuel Hernando, president of CACIA, said that one of the issues of greatest interest to market operators related to this initiative is the serious impact of the informal sector on productive and commercial activity.
Currently, there is a large group of manufacturers, distributors and retailers that operate with different degrees of informality: from the very young who do not have health records or operating licenses or who do not pay properly, to those who openly violate the sanitary, environmental, municipal and fiscal laws and social security regulations, directly affecting consumers and violating their rights, or sometimes they are even part of criminal organizations that receive and commercialize proceeds from theft or contraband,”
explained Hernando.
Therefore, retailers and suppliers requested the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce (MEIC) for the creation of a well-designed and structured country strategy of frontal combat against informalism, in search of its transition towards legality, the variables that foster it and the illegal practices of those who develop it.
In this sense, both suppliers and retailers will promote practices to avoid the commercialization of products with those operators whose illegal activities represent a risk for the country and for the efficient functioning of the market.
The practices included in the Code are based on the dynamics of commercial relations regarding costs, discounts, promotions, acceptance and registration of new products, promotions, and price discrimination, among other aspects, where free competition and healthy negotiation prevail.
The creation of this Code is a joint effort with CACIA, who has been working with retailers and their suppliers.
crhoy.com