Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

Allen

Despite cuts in the prices of fuel and grains, many manufacturers and distributors have not dropped the prices of the retail products, the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) reported yesterday.

"The disparity is very significant," Dolsie Allen, chief executive officer, CAC, said during a Gleaner Editors' Forum at the newspaper's central Kingston head offices.

"The prices have not been going down at all; they are coming up," she continued, citing recent surveys.

Allen said while the CAC was not expecting a 50 per cent reduction in prices because there were other factors influencing business operations, consumers should have been paying at least 10 per cent less for some goods.

One per cent reduction

She said when it was announced that chicken prices were going down, there was a one per cent reduction, but the retail prices later increased again.

"At what stage in the game does the consumer get a break?" questioned Allen at the forum organised by The Gleaner's iConsumer team. iConsumer, a twice-monthly magazine on savvy shopping, was launched on October 16. "When things are going up, we hear that prices of grain are going up, and when they are coming down, we all say there are other factors."

William Mahfood, chairman of Wisynco Limited, interjected saying his company's electricity cost, for example, has gone up by 70 per cent, and the expense had to be passed on to consumers.

Meanwhile, Douglas Orane, chairman and chief executive officer of GraceKennedy and Company Limited, said the economic crunch has triggered a change in consumers' spending habits.

He noted that persons are spending less at restaurants and are instead spending more on snacks and cheaper food items.

But Dorothy Campbell, communication specialist at the CAC, said despite the economic downturn, consumers should ensure that they continue to eat nutritious meals.

petrina.francis@gleanerjm.com