Ramadan 2021: How UAE aims to keep food prices stable

The ministry also held meetings with representatives of the vegetable and fruit markets in the emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi to ensure the availability of necessary adequate stocks ahead of Ramadan. These measures will help meet the expected rise in fruits and vegetables’ demand during the holy month, and as a result, also maintain the stability of prices.

The average daily import of vegetables and fruits to the Dubai market during the Ramadan season is around 17,000 tonnes, while that of Abu Dhabi is around 5,000 tonnes.

At present, the total volume of the available stock of vegetables and fruits is around 130,000 tonnes.

Marwan Al Sboosi, Director of the Competition and Consumer Protection Department, at the Ministry of Economy, said several inspections have been planned before and during Ramadan.

The plan includes 420 field visits and a tour of cooperative societies, sales outlets, grocery stores, meat, poultry, and fish markets in the various emirates of the country.

The move will ensure that prices are maintained and that the outlets and markets are committed to implementing the initiatives that have been announced.

Inspections

He stated that the total number of field tours carried out by the ministry and local departments in various markets during last year reached 139,190, including 15,542 consumer protection inspections.

During these visits, commodity identification cards, pricing of products, and placing of price labels were checked, coupled with the monitoring of the quality of goods.

The other tours were related to commercial frauds, trademarks, copyrights, infringements, factory, and commercial agency searches.

During the Q1 of this financial year, a total of 615 tours were conducted, of which 282 were for consumer protection.

He emphasised that consumers are also part of these efforts. Consumers have an important role to further safeguard their rights in the country through constructive interaction with the supervisory authorities, especially the Ministry of Economy.

They can contact the ministry's call centre at 8001222 to report malpractices related to their rights, lodge complaints, and put forth their suggestions and observations to further develop the country’s consumer protection mechanism.

Al Sboosi pointed out that the Competition and Consumer Protection Department would continue to receive complaints and resolve them in cooperation with the competent authorities in the country.

The total number of complaints that were resolved during the Q1 of this fiscal in the country reached 1,412.

He said that the ministry is working on an initiative to unify consumer complaints procedures at the national level in partnership with the competent authorities in a bid to extend maximum satisfaction to customers and also reduce the time taken for grievance redressal mechanism.