Some food prices stabilising, says BCCI head

Just over a month after another prices social compact took effect, the business sector is reporting that the cost of some imported food items is stabilising.

President of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Anthony Branker gave that update on Thursday as he also reported that retailers and distributors are complying with the measures set out in the compact.

“We have seen some stabilising of some prices of items coming into the island and, therefore, there is less pressure to have to change or move pricing,” he told Barbados TODAY.

“The prices protocol is still very much in place. We have both retailers and distributors adhering to the set markups. We obviously would not have had the poultry and chicken producers in this compact and therefore the change in the feed pricing is not expected to impact the compact. So at this stage, everything is as it was when we started this second compact.”

In early February, Senior Minister for Coordinating the Productive Sectors, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kerrie Symmonds announced that Barbadians would continue to get an ease in prices on 47 items for another six months under the new prices social compact.

The Government removed the 17.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) from the items, while pork producers agreed to a markup of only 10 per cent.

In some cases, customs duties have been removed from some items.

However, instead of the previous 12 to 15 per cent markup in the first compact, distributors and manufacturers agreed to a markup of between 15 per cent to 18 per cent on dry goods and up to 20 per cent on cold storage products as listed in the basket of goods. emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb