herewith the problem lies.
It is not easy as you think ,who is going to manage this network and store goods ,postage etc .no-one is going to do it out of the goodness of there hearts.After management fees and commitee expenses have been paid and employees wages ,there will not be much discount left .you only have to see the present feds shop prices to see this.
When Richard branson bid to do the lottery ,he said he would not take a penny profit ,but the problem was in the small print the management fees ,expenses and salaries were far in excess of camelots profits (double i think).so what sometimes seems good on the surface may not always be the best way
When the middle men are forced out of business ,and the manufacturers main customer becomes the group ,then they could hold you over a barrel and put the prices up.
It is fare competition what forces prices down.Look at the oil cartel in the middle East ,they decide to hold back production so prices go up , then they all profit ,leave it to a few players ,then they have no incentives to cut prices because they have a big market share.
What if the new comitee whatever ,decides to deal with say one resin manufacturer and the out of favour give up developing resin for wfp ,we will be left with one producer.And without direct competition prices will go up.
It is a bit like state owned enterprises they become stale old fashioned and inefficient .and only direct competition can move things forward and bring down prices.
Dave
ps .if it dont make much sense i was rushing but i think you can see the picture.