Chicken...now bread?

DESPITE having dealt with the price of chicken last week, Government may have to face a looming problem regarding the price of bread.  This was disclosed by Legal Affairs Minister Camille Robinson-Regis when she addressed the launch of a National Flour Mills (NFM) training seminar at the San Fernando Technical Institute last Saturday.

The Minister expressed optimism that producers “will do all in their power to keep the prices down as much as possible, especially as we come down to the latter part of this year and look forward to the Christmas festivities.” Reiterating that one of her Ministry’s main objectives is to educate consumers to make appropriate choices regarding quality goods and services, Robinson-Regis said the Ministry tackled these issues when NFM increased the price of flour in January due to a worldwide shortage of wheat. She stated that following talks between the relevant stakeholders, NFM effected reductions of between ten to 17 percent in the prices of flour and flour-related products in May. “Investigations by officers of the Consumer Affairs Division of the Ministry of Legal Affairs had indicated that most supermarkets had passed these savings on to their customers. However, the producers of bread and other flour-based products had not made similar concessions,” the Minister said.

Robinson-Regis said Government cannot implement price controls in a liberalised economy and “can only rely on moral suasion and the integrity of producers to pass savings on to customers.” “Consequently, the onus falls on consumers to exercise the power of choice and patronise only those businesses that operate in the interest of consumers by passing on savings to them,” she added. Robinson-Regis said meetings between her Ministry and the Bakers’ Association have acknowledged that increased prices on their products would impact severely on both consumers and the local baking industry. She noted that over a 15-year period, 37 bakeries have closed down and unless costs are stabilised, another ten are likely to follow suit this year. The Minister said the option of importing cheaper flour was explored previously but flour from Barbados and Venezuela were deemed unsuitable for this purpose.