TT minister blames grocers for high food prices, calls for supermarket boycott

A Trinidad and Tobago government minister has shifted all blame for high food prices to supermarkets, which he claims are gouging consumers. And Consumer Affairs Minister Peter Taylor is advising people to boycott supermarkets and buy from suppliers instead.

Taylor told reporters Wednesday supermarket owners are unreasonably marking up food prices to fatten their pockets.

He accused some of them of marking up basic food products such as rice by between 35 and 40 per cent. He said they can make a decent profit with a mark up of 15 per cent.

"This is the same society that we all have to live in, that we all have to exist in, there has to be some basic humanity. There is no need for the volatility in certain prices...but yet still you are seeing unreasonable increases every week and we are saying it has to do with a lack of social conscience," Taylor said.

The minister said suppliers are willing to hold prices down and urged supermarkets to do the same. He said consumers have an option of buying directly from suppliers and advised them to do so. "The options are, you can access the cooperative at NFM on Wrightson Road, you can go directly there and purchase flour." He said they could do the same for other commodities.

Taylor stopped short of denouncing supermarkets as "some sort of cartel". However, he said "the market is being influenced in a certain way, we all have the social responsibility to move away from that sort of practice."

Taylor admitted that Government's hands are tied with respect to the situation. "The whole issue of regulations is not really the purview of the Government. Price controls are not recommended in pure economic sense because what it will tend to do is open the door to black marketeering," he said.

Grocery owners quickly called the minister’s statements “irresponsible”. While there has been no formal response from the Supermarkets Association, many grocers denied that they were fixing prices to fleece the public.

They suggested that the minister was trying to shift responsibility from the government and stir up anger among consumers against groceries.

They explained that they were victims of high prices just like everybody else and the minister was acting irresponsibly in suggesting that some kind of cartel is exploiting the situation. They said wholesale prices of most items have been steadily rising and they are just responding to the reality.

One of them wondered if Taylor was trying to incite kidnappers to go after grocery owners.