Shop owners, consumers struggle with increased food prices

Going to the corner shop to buy basic food items has become a challenge for Frederick.

The 61-year-old, who works as a labourer, said it would usually cost him $200 to put on a pot but admits that he has been finding it difficult since the prices on several food items were increased recently.

"Right now, mi cyah afford fi buy a simple tin mackerel and one pound a rice or flour like one time. Mi could a use $200 and get dem deh and a pack a Kool-Aid. But rice gone up, flour gone up, bully beef (cornbeef) gone up and mackerel. Mi never know say mackerel would a sell fi more than $100," said Frederick, who fathers six children.

The cost of one tin of mackerel, according to several shop owners, ranges from $120 to $130. Rice and flour, as recently as January, were being sold for between $40 and $50 a pound. However, since the increase, two of the most used food types in households are now going for $70 a pound.

"A how poor people ago survive? A two weeks now mi a reuse the same oil fi cook wid because mi cyah afford fi a spend over mi budget every day. Mi no have it like that," said Frederick. He added that he has been unable to find work due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"Alright, watch yah now, mi no see no work fi bout six weeks now and from dem time deh mi a pinch one likkle $3,000 cause mi tell miself say things a no like one time when mi can full mi belly wid all a $200," he said.

According to Pebbles, who runs a grocery shop in Denham Town, west Kingston, chicken back, bread, flour, rice, tin milk, and several other food items considered essentials by many, have all seen a significant dip in demand.

"One big tin bully beef a fi $500. Yuh can call it say a that amount. Di people dem nah buy as much like one time cause dem no have it and that force we now, di shopkeepers, fi either suffer di losses, because if we increase di price dem nah go buy, or if we sell back di goods fi di same price and a pay more when wi buy dem, it ago unbalance," she said.

Another shop owner, Andrea, who operates in Swallowfield, St Andrew, told THE STAR that the price increases have driven away some customers. She said that an additional $30 has been added to most of her goods in order for her business to sustain itself.

"It is bad because di people dem know di price dem, but after while mi affi put extra on the prices which kinda force customers away. People will buy, but not in bungle since everything started to raise since last month," said Andrea, who also claimed that a bag of rice has jumped from $2,500 to $5,000.

In February, the Jamaica Flour Mills (JFM) announced an increase in prices on all categories of flour, cake mixes, festival mixes and wheat by-products, including animal feed. In announcing the increases, the JFM said that after absorbing cumulative costs for some time, it had now reached the brink.