The high price of eggs has been in the news since bird flu spread across the U.S. However, a new report alleges the potato industry has a stranglehold on the high price of groceries. Investigative news outlet The Lever discussed a new antitrust battle against the frozen potato market in November. “T...

“Around 40 percent of all potatoes grown in the United States are sold to frozen potato companies — 17 billion pounds annually,” the lawsuit said. Four firms then buy the potatoes, prepare and freeze them before packaging them.

While there were over a dozen companies 20 years ago, that number has slowly shrunk to just four. They’re named: Lamb Weston, Canada-based company McCain Foods, the J.R. Simplot Company, and Cavendish Farms. The first two control about 70% of the market, while J.R. Simplot manages about 20%, the report says.

They’ve all told restaurants and bars that they’ll increase prices by $0.12 per pound in April.

“It was just the most obvious example of collusion I’ve seen in a long time,” said Washington, D.C., bar owner Josh Saltzman. “All of them were raising their prices by virtually the exact same amount within a week of each other.”