CONSUMER AFFAIRS Minister Danny Montano is advising consumers to eat cassava and Guyana rice as alternatives to NFM rice, the price of which is to be increased by 15 per cent.
By RICHARD LORD
Saturday, January 10th 2004
CONSUMER AFFAIRS Minister Danny Montano is advising consumers to eat cassava and Guyana rice as alternatives to NFM rice, the price of which is to be increased by 15 per cent.
In an interview with the Express yesterday, after meeting with the Supermarkets Association, Montano was upset over the decision, saying he had not been consulted by NFM, whom he accused of "leading a cartel" in this regard.
Noting that NFM was the single largest importer of rice into the country, Montano said, "The first thing that concerns me and this Ministry is that the National Flour Mills is literally leading a cartel arrangement."
Montano said it was not the policy of Government to support that kind of activity.
Montano said Government was looking at existing legislation to see what could be done to prevent such situation.
He recalled that when on a previous occasion the NFM agreed to increase the flour price, it had called in the stakeholders. On this occasion this was not done, Montano added.
But he insisted that the NFM should recognise it had a responsibility to the consumer. "Common sense would dictate that they speak with this Ministry in matters like that."
He said that in "this type of cartel arrangement, the suppliers of rice can be building in their own inefficiencies into the pricing structure".
He said that while NFM "claimed that they had been the subject of certain price increases, I happen to know that they have failed to tender publicly their shipping arrangements for several years".
Montano said that because of this, "one does not know whether they could gain efficiency in their shipping, and that is just one example of the type of inefficiency that they are building into the ultimate prices of their product".
He then advised citizens to look at alternatives, including rice from Guyana. Noting that some of the better quality rice was not supplied to this country, Montano said, "We will go to Guyana," with a view to addressing this matter. Other alternatives, he said, included "cassava, sweet potato and other products from the ground that consumers can and should turn to".
