A New Study Says Price Controls on 21 Products Could Save Families Up to ₪600 a Year. On the Rice It Names, Chains Already Charge 76% Apart.

By מערכת סופרקליר · 2026-08-04 · 5 min read

76% — The gap today between the cheapest and priciest chain for the identical 1kg bag of Sugat white rice — one of the products a new study proposes putting back under price control — ₪9.60 vs. ₪16.90, per Superclear data, August 2026

It has a name, a methodology, and a round, tempting number: ₪1.8 billion a year. That's what a new study, published July 19, 2026 by the Arlozorov Forum and the Histadrut's Consumer Authority, says Israeli households could save if the state put 21 shelf products — from dairy and cheese to rice, diapers and toilet paper — back under government price control. What the study can't tell you is what that same shelf looks like right now, with zero controls. We checked, on one of the products on the list, using Superclear's own data.

The list: what's actually being proposed

Behind the research is Dr. Yuval Ofek-Shani, of Bar-Ilan University's economics department and a senior fellow at the Arlozorov Forum. His methodology runs on four tests: market power via the HHI concentration index (with a threshold of 2,000, above which a market counts as non-competitive — and, per the study, more than 75% of the products examined cross that line), the product's weight in household spending, health considerations by Health Ministry classification, and practical feasibility — product uniformity, price transparency, and how easy the item is to enforce (Arlozorov Forum).

Those tests produced two lists. The narrow one covers ten products — butter, milk, white cheese, sour cream, sweet whipping cream, cottage cheese, diapers, toilet paper, laundry detergent and infant formula — with roughly ₪6.6 billion in annual household spending and a projected saving of about ₪1.3 billion a year. The broad list adds another 11 — including household cooking gas, frozen peas, white rice, soy beverages, soda water, dish soap, whole wheat bread, fabric softener, wet wipes, pasta and frozen broccoli — for a projected ₪1.8 billion. Per household, that's a range of roughly ₪450 to ₪600 a year, depending on which list gets adopted.

The study leans on precedent, too: when price controls on white cheese were reinstated in 2014, the price fell by about 21% — by the study's own estimate, a cumulative saving of roughly ₪1.5 billion over the following decade. Similarly, removing controls on sweet cream between 2009 and 2014 came with a roughly 30% price rise; reinstating them brought an 18% drop.

Why the Finance Ministry objects — and why not every economist is convinced either

The Finance Ministry, per Calcalist, leads the opposition: in its view, price controls belong only in extreme cases of market failure, and it warns of shortages, quality decline, distorted pricing mechanisms and enforcement costs (Calcalist). Even the study itself, while arguing for expanded controls, doesn't wave those risks away — it simply argues they're smaller in markets with genuine concentration.

That critique isn't new. An analysis by the Knesset Research and Information Center, covered by Globes back in 2022, found that between 2005 and 2014 controlled products rose in price by 38.5% — more than the 22.2% rise in the general Consumer Price Index over the same period. A later, 2019 review found a mixed picture: some controlled items (bread, cheese) got relatively cheaper, while others (butter, eggs) rose faster than general inflation. The same piece cites a 2021 Competition Authority position that price controls "did not help lower consumer prices," crediting import liberalization instead for the competitive improvement (Globes) — though that was the authority's stance four years ago, not a current ruling.

There's broader context behind all of this, too. Research from Reichman University's Aaron Institute, reported by Calcalist in April 2026, found food in Israel is 26% more expensive than the developed-country average, relative to 2005, pointing to import tariffs of 40%-75% on agricultural goods, production quotas, restrictions on fruit and vegetable imports, and kosher-certification costs adding 5%-8% to the price of a product (Calcalist). And the State Comptroller has already flagged that the state barely tracks the products that already are under control: only 27% of audit files that found violations of controlled prices ended in actual penalties (Ynet).

What the study can't check: the shelf itself, today

All of this debate rests on one basic assumption — that in a concentrated market with no controls, the price stays high and stays put. So we checked Superclear's own data on one product from the broad list: white rice.

A 1kg bag of Sugat round white rice — the identical barcode — is currently on sale at 1,360 stores across 30 different chains in Israel. The cheapest price: ₪9.60, at Shufersal's wholesale distribution branches in Be'er Sheva and Ashdod. The priciest: ₪16.90, at nearly every branch of the "Super Sapir" minimarket chain across the country, from Kfar Saba to Haifa. That's a 76% gap on the identical product, from the identical manufacturer, on the identical day (Superclear data, August 2026). The median price sits at ₪12.90.

None of that contradicts the study's core claim — that Sugat, as the dominant rice producer, holds real market power. But it does mean that at the retail level, the price is nowhere near uniform. Someone shopping at the cheapest branch is already paying roughly 26% less than the median — more than the 20% saving the study models for price control. The same pattern shows up on diapers, another item on the narrow list: a 30-pack of Huggies Extra Care size 5 ranges from ₪39.90 to ₪64.90 across the 1,212 stores we checked — a 63% gap, with both ends of that range showing up, surprisingly, inside the very same chain: Super-Pharm.

So what does this mean for your next shopping trip

The study proposes a genuine policy tool for tackling concentration at the manufacturer level — and nobody seriously disputes that Israel's food market is concentrated. But Superclear's data shows that at the shelf, a good chunk of the gap price controls are meant to close already exists today, open to anyone who compares prices across chains. The difference is that right now you have to know to look for it; price control, if it happens, would guarantee that saving even to shoppers who don't check. Until that decision gets made — and it could take a while — the one tool that already works is comparison.

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