IF IT SEEMS the prices of some food items have quietly increased in the last three months, you’re not imagining things.
The cost of tinned foods such as corned beef, tuna and sardines has gone up, as is the case with imported vegetables like carrots, and English potatoes and meat products like imported lamb, stew beef and pickled meats.
The reason for these increases is what is happening on the international markets, says two leading supermarket managers.
“Almost every shipment the [suppliers] are saying they are faced with increased prices,” lamented Bertram Hall, managing director of Popular Discounts.
“These are basic products that affect consumers,” he added.
David Neilands, managing director of Super Centre, said the impact of adverse weather conditions across the globe, together with increased consumption from China, as well as higher oil prices which affect freighting costs, were largely responsible for the constant rising prices.
For example, he said Russia had the worst potato harvest in 50 years. As a result Russia had been buying up that commodity on other markets and the price shot up.
Then there is the growing appetite for China for more commodities. It is now importing more beef than before and this has led to a rise in price of that commodity as well as its by-products like corned beef.
Ongoing mergers are also contributing to these increased prices. For example, Connors Bros. Income Fund, the world’s largest producer of canned sardines, merged with United States fish processor Bumble Bee Seafoods LP recently.
What that did was to concentrate the top brands involved in canned sardines, tuna, salmon and specialty seafood – Brunswick, Beach Cliff, Bumble Bee and Clover Leaf – under one producer. In the face of these increases, what can Barbadians do?
Both Hall and Neilands said that Barbados could relook at lowering the duty on some products. They noted that as the cost of the items had increased anyway, Government would be collecting more VAT and should not lose revenue.
