Shelly-Ann Thompson, Staff Reporter

Dr. Keith Amiel, president of the Caribbean Agri Business Association, speaking at The Gleaner's Editor's Forum on the agriculture sector at the company's North Street, central Kingston office on April 12, 2006. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Consumers have been warned that the skidding Jamaican dollar could retard the rate of anticipated price cuts in food despite slides in the cost of oil and commodities on the global market.

Dr Keith Amiel, manager of corporate affairs at Caribbean Broilers - one of the country's two major poultry producers - told The Gleaner Tuesday that although the price of oil has dropped, the United States dollar, the main trading currency, continues to climb locally.

"People think that grain prices have gone down so food (prices) should go down," he said.

Amiel further explained that the value of the Jamaican dollar has plummeted in the last seven weeks, losing nearly $5. Some banks were selling the US dollar for up to $76.20 on Thursday.

The corporate affairs manager said, for instance, that electricity and water overheads for Caribbean Broilers were still a severe burden, its September figures cresting $30 million and $8 million, respectively.

Many consumers have expressed dissatisfaction that the expected decline in local food and power prices has not kept pace with plunging commodity prices on the world market over the last eight weeks.

Fall in the poultry-price

Consumers should, however, see a fall in the price of poultry, said Amiel, who is also the president of the Jamaica chapter of the Caribbean Agri-Business Association.

"Prices will fall but necessary not all at once," he added.

Caribbean Broilers' main competitor, Jamaica Broilers, had already implemented a two per cent cut in chicken meat.

Last Friday, Karl Samuda, industry, investments and commerce minister, announced that food prices should trend downwards for Christmas in the wake of reversals in global prices.

The minister said, based on data provided by the International Monetary Fund, reduction in global prices range from a high of 10 per cent for wheat and seven per cent for soybean, to two per cent and one per cent for rice and corn, respectively.

Marginal increase

However, Samuda also revealed that the costs of all 13 basic commodity items surveyed, excluding counter flour, showed a marginal increase on the Jamaican market. The survey was conducted up to mid-October, against the prices of September.

Dr Christopher Tufton, agriculture minister, speaking Tuesday at Alumina Partners Community Council's annual general meeting in St Elizabeth, said the Government was promoting programmes to boost the sector's production and lessen the need for imports.

"The world food crisis has forced investment in agriculture, and agriculture will be the most important response to the global financial meltdown," the minister told the meeting.

Oil prices, another key concern, have also retreated since peaking in July at dizzying heights of US$147 per barrel to below US$66 on Wednesday. That represents about a 54 per cent drop.

Gasolene prices at local pumps have also tumbled nearly 40 per cent, though not commensurate with the global cuts.

The latest midweek slash in costs has seen petrol falling below the $60 figure.

Digging deeper

However, rural motorists have been digging deeper in their pockets, some retailers selling unleaded 87 octane gasolene at nearly $80 up to last weekend. Up to Wednesday, gas stations in the capital Kingston had been selling unleaded 87, the petrol grade most widely used by motorists, at between $63 and $66.

Government's rollout of E10, ethanol-blended gasolene, at service stations this Saturday, is expected to trim up to $2 per litre, Energy Minister Clive Mullings said last week.

shelly-ann.thompson@gleanerjm.com

A display board at the Shell service station at St James Street, downtown Montego Bay, shows decreased petrol costs in the wake of plunging oil prices on the world market. - Photo by Denise Reid