More competition in groceries should come through new co-operative models rather than breaking up existing ones, Cooperative Business New Zealand chief executive Saya Wahrlich says.

“There’s a feeling perhaps that competition and co-operation are two separate things that are at odds, when we do not believe that that’s the case at all,” she says.

She wants new models such as consumer co-operatives incubated alongside any Commerce Commission process. Any intervention must clear a heavy burden of proof, she says.

“The bar needs to be extraordinarily high.”

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