ROSEAU (CMC):

Consumers of rice in Domi-nica have begun paying more for that product, the Dominica Export Import Agency revealed on Saturday.

DEXIA warned of the increase in February after reports that producers in Guyana had increased their price by 80 per cent since last October.

Commercial manager at the company, Norman Dorival, said the business could no longer absorb the price increases for rice.

not passing prices

"It has climbed so steadily that it is now at EC$633 for white rice and EC$738 for brown rice a bag. We have not been passing on the increases to consumers; our job is really to stabilise prices," Dorival said.

He noted that it was now becoming unprofitable to the company to keep the prices low.

"We, however, at this point cannot absorb any more prices, so we had to apply the increase and we still did not apply the increase in relation to the price that we have been paying for it, so we are still subsidising to some extent," Dorival said.

The prices of all grain products on the world market have skyroc-keted with several Caribbean islands already announcing increases in the cost of rice and flour.