The constant decrease in petrol prices globally and diesel prices locally will impact the cost of production and transportation, which will result in reduction of prices of commodities, traders believe.

The Ministry of EconomyMinistry of Economy, too, has assured consumers that there will be no price increase in the coming months.

Dr. Hashim Al Nuwaimi, Director of Consumer Protection Department in the MoE, said, "Prices of all commodities will go down by up to 25 per cent in the coming months due to a drop in fuel cost. There would be drop in prices of commodities after the old stock of commodities finish at the supermarkets and new stocks arrive in the market."

According to Nand Kumar, spokesperson of Emke Group, which runs the Lulu hypermarkets in the country, said, "Of late, there is slowdown in the market and petrol and diesel prices have gone down, so we expect that the prices of all commodities particularly the edible stuff will witness a decrease in prices by up to 15 per cent in the coming months."

"We are constantly making efforts to reduce the prices of edible and non-edible stuff and import them from various sources," Kumar said.

George Mojika, Executive Director of the Abu Dhabi Cooperative SocietyAbu Dhabi Cooperative Society, said, "Prices of foodstuff will go down as prices of petrol and diesel have gone down. If we start importing goods at lower cost, we will sell them accordingly and reduce the prices."

"We have been selling around 260 essential food items at cost prices since the beginning of 2008, though there is an option for consumers to choose different products having varied pricing," Mojika added.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of EconomyMinistry of Economy refused requests of suppliers for increasing prices of certain commodities, and it is extensively monitoring the situation in the market.

Talking to Khaleej Times on Thursday, Mohammad Abdul Aziz Al Shihhi, Undersecretary in the MoE, said, "We are very concerned about ensuring there will be no increase in prices and suppliers and big supermarkets would reduce prices in the interest of consumers."

"The important thing is that we will monitor the markets and we will not allow them to increase the prices anymore.

"We are monitoring it every week and we have not seen any increase of prices in the market. We have also negotiated with hypermarkets for reducing the prices," Al Shihhi said.

By Anwar Ahmad

© Khaleej Times 2009

 

Community Comments (1) - Comment on this article

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supermarkets make a killing by rai s - 03-Jan-09
When the cost of commodities was increasing, the supermarkets did not wait for goods purchased at higher prices to reach their warehouses, before increasing the prices in their stores. It takes about 2 to 4 weeks for goods to arrive from the date of contract.

All the supermarkets promptly increased the prices on the basis of 'replacement' cost of purchase.

Now when the prices have already gone down substantially, they are slow in offering any reduction.

The net result is supermarkets have been profiteering and made undue profits, both in rising market as well as in falling market.

I hope the concerned department in Ministry is looking into this aspect of the problem. [Report Abuse | Email to a Friend | Reply to this Comment]

 

 

 

 

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