By L.K. Hewlett
St. Kitts Reporter
Citizens are anxiously waiting to see if the cost of some of their basic food items will be reduced after government announced that it is ‘tackling the high cost of basic food items in the Federation’.
On Wednesday, Cabinet mandated the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the Ministry of Finance to undertake a comprehensive review and analysis of the established basket of basic food items. Some of these items include rice, baby food, milk, and flour.
The review is an attempt at finding out what affects the cost of certain foods and what impact these food prices has on poor people in the society.
“The analysis will examine the cost build-up on basic foods, will re-examine the basket of basic foods with a view to making whatever necessary adjustments thereto, and will make recommendations as to how the cost of these basic items can be favourably impacted through a number of number of measures which the government will implement,” Minister of State for Information, Senator the Honourable Nigel Carty announced in a recent post Cabinet briefing.
Carty disclosed that Government has called on the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for its support and advice so that positive results in relation to the cost of basic foods can be achieved for the poor in particular.
The Junior Minister did not reveal what the ‘measures’ were that the government intended to make but consumers are already anticipating lower supermarket prices.
“It’s high time they do something about these prices in the supermarkets. It’s getting so that your shopping getting higher but you walking out the stores with less and less things. I hope that the government make them carry down their prices because you see the same products overseas for little or nothing,” a woman named Gloria told this reporter outside of one of the nation’s leading supermarket chains.
Minister of Consumer Affairs, the Hon. Dr. Timothy Harris met earlier this week with personnel from the Bureau of Standards headed by Dr. Milton Whittaker, at the Multi-Purpose Laboratory, La Guerite. Permanent Secretary for the Ministry, Ambassador Roslyn, accompanied Dr. Harris Hazelle.
Harris outlined to the staff of the Bureau of Standards the emphasis that the government has put on the work of the agency and said that the high cost of living was a major issue that government would be tackling over the next few months.
