‘What we have seen is exorbitant prices of basic food items in certain groceries with one saying it is a mistake on very high printed food prices on vegetable packages’
By Neil Gosine
WITH mounting food prices, what comes to mind is the food security of our country. A very serious issue you must agree, where every citizen would consider it to be extremely urgent in finding solutions in dealing with this matter.
The Russia invasion of the Ukraine continues to threaten to keep the food crisis growing and prominent on the world stage. The war has caused gasoline prices to skyrocket causing many Trinidad and Tobago citizens to continue to see hard times, unable to make ends meet.
So the frightening part of this whole situation is that we are heading down the road of a recession as our economic growth continues to decline. Already we are seeing the writing on the wall that a recession may be imminent and in a recession a country’s economic output declines, unemployment rises, basic commodities increase and retail sales fall. Further, businesses will try to reduce their spending and this affects the manufacturing sector where the production of goods is reduced.
With an already hurting economy in T&T and with consumers and businesses decreasing their spending, this can only cause more economic fallout. The best way to insulate oneself from a recession is try to protect your finances, by protecting your income, by getting new sources of income and by trying to get a raise in salary at your current job. It’s important to have a couple of months of extra money put aside in case of an emergency as unforeseen emergencies can be devastating.
The Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon advised recently that she would come up with solutions to ease the burden of the increased food prices our county is facing but to date we have not seen anything positive coming out from her or her ministry. What we have seen is exorbitant prices of basic food items in certain groceries with one saying it is a mistake on very high printed food prices on vegetable packages.
Why are we seeing such high disparities in the prices? Why has this not been addressed by the minister?
We have to look at solutions to the problems facing us and I’m going to give some suggestions:
Put out releases of price ranges that are acceptable now on a weekly basis to prevent price gouging;
We must try to avoid high-priced locations that have priced items unreasonably;
Put in a subsidy for flour prices and fixed retail pricing of flour so as to help our citizens in the short term, as flour is a staple food item for our households.;
Increase the school feeding programme so children at least get a meal while in school; and
Expand the food card programme urgently so families that are really in need can receive the assistance they require.
All these things were done under the People’s Partnership with Kamla Persad Bissessar as the prime minister when they were in office however, now all we have seen is talk and more talk but nothing of any real substance coming from the current administration. Hopefully, with these suggestions, the minister who seems to be void of ideas and the capacity for individual creative thinking can come up with something to prevent the onslaught of the impending food prices being experienced and a possible recession on our horizon.
Neil Gosine is the treasurer of the UNC. He was a former Chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration MBA , BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.
How to Fight High Food Prices
‘What we have seen is exorbitant prices of basic food items in certain groceries with one saying it is a mistake on very high printed food prices on vegetable packages’
WITH mounting food prices, what comes to mind is the food security of our country. A very serious issue you must agree, where every citizen would consider it to be extremely urgent in finding solutions in dealing with this matter.
The Russia invasion of the Ukraine continues to threaten to keep the food crisis growing and prominent on the world stage. The war has caused gasoline prices to skyrocket causing many Trinidad and Tobago citizens to continue to see hard times, unable to make ends meet.
So the frightening part of this whole situation is that we are heading down the road of a recession as our economic growth continues to decline. Already we are seeing the writing on the wall that a recession may be imminent and in a recession a country’s economic output declines, unemployment rises, basic commodities increase and retail sales fall. Further, businesses will try to reduce their spending and this affects the manufacturing sector where the production of goods is reduced.
With an already hurting economy in T&T and with consumers and businesses decreasing their spending, this can only cause more economic fallout. The best way to insulate oneself from a recession is try to protect your finances, by protecting your income, by getting new sources of income and by trying to get a raise in salary at your current job. It’s important to have a couple of months of extra money put aside in case of an emergency as unforeseen emergencies can be devastating.
The Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon advised recently that she would come up with solutions to ease the burden of the increased food prices our county is facing but to date we have not seen anything positive coming out from her or her ministry. What we have seen is exorbitant prices of basic food items in certain groceries with one saying it is a mistake on very high printed food prices on vegetable packages.
Why are we seeing such high disparities in the prices? Why has this not been addressed by the minister?
We have to look at solutions to the problems facing us and I’m going to give some suggestions:
All these things were done under the People’s Partnership with Kamla Persad Bissessar as the prime minister when they were in office however, now all we have seen is talk and more talk but nothing of any real substance coming from the current administration. Hopefully, with these suggestions, the minister who seems to be void of ideas and the capacity for individual creative thinking can come up with something to prevent the onslaught of the impending food prices being experienced and a possible recession on our horizon.
Neil Gosine is the treasurer of the UNC. He was a former Chairman of the National Petroleum Marketing Company of Trinidad and Tobago. He also holds a Masters in Business Administration MBA , BSC in Mathematics and a BA in Administrative Studies. The views and comments expressed in this column are not necessarily those of AZP News, a Division of Complete Image Limited.