NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Retail Grocers Association (RGA) President Philip Beneby said yesterday that he remains optimistic that food retailers and wholesalers will come to a resolution with government very soon over their Price Control Basket expansion concerns.
Beneby confirmed that the association is set to meet with government today on the issue.
“We are still in dialogue with government. We hope to have a meeting on Tuesday and we will see what the outcome of that meeting is. All I can say is we hope and pray that we come to some resolution soon.
“I’m optimistic that it won’t run on much longer and we should have more to say once we have concluded our meetings,” Beneby said.
He acknowledged that the association has rejected the government’s latest amended list of items being added to the Price Control Basket.
Last week Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis revealed that government had agreed to a five percent increase in the margin on perishable food items, who yesterday described the move as a “reasonable concession”.
The items on the government’s final amended price control list are the same categories of items gazetted last month.
The Retail Grocers Association had argued that while the government had announced 38 items would be added to the Price Control Basket, it is in actuality 38 categories of foodstuffs, which would affect more than 5,000 items to which inventory and price adjustments would have to be made.
The association further argued that the move would be detrimental to the local food wholesale and retail industry, and indicated that they would not implement the price control amendments until they received a conclusive response from the government.
