By Sarah Hannan
The Ministry of Trade’s decision to maintain a stable price for 10 essential food items for a period of six months from February in order to provide consumers with such items at an affordable price will only be possible through the state-owned retail store chains. The same products in other retail stores would still be fluctuating from time to time, depending on the changing cost of logistics and product availability, it is learnt.
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Shoppers gather at Manning Market to buy their daily essentials. Photo Pradeep Dambarage[/caption]
The necessity to provide essential foods items at controlled prices increased after the public was badly hit by the lockdowns and the subsequent loss of livelihoods and incomes.
As a solution, the Government announced controlled prices for items such as rice, dhal, canned fish, and big onions last year. Yet these items were only available at the controlled price through the state-owned outlets.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Minister of Trade Dr. Bandula Gunawardana said: “The objective of this is to strengthen the state-owned retail store chains such as CWE outlets, co-operative shops, and Q shops to provide high-quality products to the consumers whilst maintaining stable prices for 10 essential food items for a period of six months beginning from February.”
Dr. Gunawardana stated that rice, wheat flour, sugar, dhal, canned fish, potatoes, sprats, big onions, eggs, and poultry will be sold to consumers through state-owned retail store chain outlets islandwide.
“We are also looking at expediting the payments for the suppliers, which at present seems to have a lag. Once this initiative is set in motion, we plan to pay for the stocks obtained within a period of seven days, eliminating the long waiting period suppliers had to generally undergo,” Dr. Gunawardana elaborated.
The Minister also stated that an Expression of Interest advertisement is to be published early this week calling for suppliers that intend to enrol under this programme, after which tenders will be called in the following week from registered suppliers who are able to supply essential food items at fixed prices. They will then be selected to supply the selected items at the controlled price for a period of six months.
Supplying perishables a challenge
However, when The Sunday Morning contacted Essential Food Commodities Importers’ and Traders’ Association (EFCITA) President G. Rajendran about supplying certain commodities at the controlled price to the state-owned retail chain stores, he stated: “We only have control over several products that the Minister of Trade has listed as essential food items, which can be supplied at the controlled prices, such as dhal and sugar. However, supplying perishable items at such prices will be the challenge. We are holding discussions with the suppliers as to whether they could provide us stocks at the set price for a period of time.”
In the case of rice, the EFCITA said that they handle imported rice products. Therefore, the Government will have to discuss that with the local rice mill owners and rice producers.
Furthermore, they are also discussing with suppliers of dried fish (sprats), as that is handled by an entirely different association, and would have to discuss terms of supply and whether they are able to provide stocks for the six-month period at the Government’s price.
“In any case, the supply of goods at the controlled price would only be afforded from our end to the state-owned retail chain stores such as Sathosa and co-operative shops. The prices in the outside market will vary, but we will maintain it at the agreed upon maximum retail price,” Rajendran added.
Close eye on errant traders
Meanwhile, Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) Spokesperson Asela Bandara said: “As the Minister has stated, the 10 selected essential items will be sold at controlled prices at the state-owned retail stores. Therefore, the action from our part is to issue the gazette once the prices have been finalised – that is by the end of January.”
The price control mechanism monitoring and the raids over the substandard goods supplied that are to be conducted on traders will continue regularly by the CAA.
“Errant traders too will be closely monitored and necessary action will be taken by the CAA to ensure that the consumers are not inconvenienced when traders decide to stockpile essential goods in hopes of releasing the goods to the market once the prices increase due to short supply,” Bandara added.
