Grocer: NFM is price-fixing

Arima Discount Mart (ADM) CEO, Balliram Maharaj, has blamed the recent hike in the cost of rice on price-fixing by National Flour Mills. In a statement yesterday, he congratulated Minister of Consumer Affairs, Danny Montano, for condemning the rise in the price of rice. Maharaj said: “From December 2003 to August 2004 rice has increased by 40 percent...It is my opinion that it is a straight case of price-fixing and the National Flour Mills is trying to increase their margin on rice in order to prepare for the new flour mills coming on stream shortly.” He asked why all three rice distributors raised their price at the same time if they were getting supplies from different sources.

He suggested the NFM had  set up the two other distributors — Par Excellence and Alisie — in order to protect themselves. Maharaj concluded: “Once again I am calling on the relevant authorities to remove the taxes on all basic food products and by-products, flour, rice, oil, cheese, milk, rice, macaroni, etcetera.” Maharaj supplied figures showing NFM raising the price of 20 bags of one-kilogramme of rice from $77 last December to $89 in January and now to  $111, an overall increase of 38 percent in all. A box of ten bags of two kilogrammes and five bags of four kilogrammes of NFM rice had increased since last December to the present by 40 percent.