Residents ask for intervention to stop rise in food prices

Readers feel that prices of every day essential items have increased over the past year. Gulf News asked community journalists to go out and check the price of various items at groceries across the emirates.

What they found was that some items had seen a hike in price since last year, which was confirmed when the newspaper compared the Ministry of Economy’s price commodities list from September 2011 with that for the same month in 2012.

According to P.C Omar based in Abu Dhabi, who visits several stores when doing his shopping, the hike comes from an apparent absence of a uniform price regulating system.

He said: “Since last year the prices have increased across the board. I feel this increase is due to a lack of a common strategy for pricing. Right now each store has a different price system, so an item in one store is say Dh6, it might be Dh7 in another.”

He feels that there should be a law in place to regulate prices in every store, which would not only help people’s budgets, but would also put a stop to another problem - clear listing of prices on all items.

Dubai-based Aslam Doi also believes that intervention is needed when it comes to protecting people’s budgets.

He said: “The prices have changed a lot over the past year and when it comes to items like meat and chicken, the prices have increased significantly.

“The authorities need to intervene to check the day-to-day prices of essential items. They need to control the increase, as the prices climb higher, it affects the common man more and more.”In September 2011, a 1kg frozen whole chicken cost around Dh13.25 and 1kg of fresh minced local beef was priced at around Dh26.5, but there was no increase as per the September 2012 commodities list. While Doi has seen how prices tend to differ from store to store, he believes the increase is not due to a lack of regulation, but possibly certain items’ lack of availability or changes in the country of origin.

He said: “If an item is popular it might mean there is a short supply, in which case retailers would hike up the price. Also, [changes in price] might be due to an increase in prices in the country it is being imported from.”

Either way, Doi would like to see something done to prevent prices seeing exponential increases, which would affect people from every bracket and make it harder for some to afford the basic necessities.

He said: “With essential items prices need to be reasonable so that everyone can afford them.”