Government is closely monitoring food prices across major supermarket chains and inspectors will check anything that is outside the margin.
Acting director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Bertram Johnson, gave that assurance yesterday at the launch of the PriceCheck app at the Ministry of Energy and Business under which the department falls.
The PriceCheck app compares the prices of 12 major supermarkets and retailers for shoppers.
The items compared must fall under the special basket of goods from the Compact list initiated by Government during the COVID-19 pandemic and the basic basket of goods that has more than 300 items.
In Phase 1
Johnson said the app, which was now in Phase 1 and would have four phases, had a built-in system which when it sees a price that is “an outlier, way outside the margin, it flags it on our internal system”.
“What our officers will do is check to see if it is an error and inspectors would go out and check. When we upload our prices to the app we do not want to misrepresent prices. It could just be a mistake on the part of the retailer.”
Johnson said that if prices seen by consumer seem to be too high they should “contact the ministry” so they can do their due diligence.
“Sometimes the price is the right price but we will investigate to find out what is going on there,” he stated.
He also said that there would be more robust checks as the Asycuda system of the Customs Department is integrated as the department monitors prices.
Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins said while inspectors would go out on foot and check supermarkets and put them in a blue book and then advertisements would be placed in the paper, “that is a thing of the past as we now move into the 21st Century”.
She said the prices on the app would be updated twice a month for the special basket and once a month for the basic basket.
“Last year we started to look at the entire supply chain. Not all of the goods we are monitoring we produce locally. It is about economies of scale. So, for example, bread, the prices may not vary from place to place because we know the local producers. But in the case of the items we import, costs will be passed on to consumers. External factors will influence pricing,” Cummins explained.
She said they were not excluding traditional stores such as minimarts and small community shops as they built out the framework of the app.
The minister said people were paying attention to how they spend and the app made that easier.
“Barbadians are used to driving here and there and shopping around for best prices. What we are doing now with this app is to take out some of the leg work and the sweat equity. You can put in a search, pull up that item and the different brands and a set of options and where you can find that option and for what price.”
Savings to be passed on
She stated that the challenges of cost of living and high prices were not unique to Barbados.
“We import 90 per cent of what we consume. There is a cost to that. We are price takers. We have no control over what happens in external markets. What we do have control over and what we can do internally is capping the prices at the port, reducing prices passed on cost to consumers.”
Cummins said with the app they would also partner with the business community for savings to be passed on to consumers.
“Some [businesses] are in long-term contracts. There has been a conversation about where we are sourcing goods from and we are looking at where some can diversify their supplier base. There are options we are looking at where we can get goods, identical or better quality, at great prices that benefit the consumer.
“Businesses are procuring goods externally at prices over which they have no control, in some instances, as with shipping prices. There will, at times, be price changes but we want to, in this ministry, see how we can lower some of the business costs as that lower cost results in lower cost to the consuming community.”
The free app will soon be rolled out fully. (NS)
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