ADM Exec Testifies About Price Fixing of Citric Acid

An Archer Daniels Midland Co. executive testified Wednesday that he and a former co-worker were involved in fixing prices of citric acid, a food additive used as a preservative and flavor enhancer in soft drinks and other products.

Barrie Cox became the first ADM official to testify in the federal price-fixing trial of three current and former ADM executives. Cox, president of ADM’s food additives division, testified that he, former colleague Terrance Wilson and officials from several European companies reached an illegal accord to fix prices and limit production levels of citric acid during a 1991 lunch at a Swiss hotel.

Wilson, ADM Vice Chairman Michael Andreas and former ADM executive Mark Whitacre are accused of fixing prices of lysine, a poultry and swine feed additive. They were not charged with fixing citric acid prices.

ADM pleaded guilty in 1996 to fixing lysine and citric acid prices and paid a $100-million fine. Wilson, Andreas and Whitacre, who each face up to three years in prison and $350,000 in fines if convicted, have pleaded not guilty.

“Prices were low in Europe and around the world,” Cox testified. “They were depressed and they needed to be increased. We decided we should do something about it.”

Wilson’s alleged involvement in a four-year citric acid scheme is critical to federal prosecutors in the case against the three men.