By Damion Mitchell, Staff ReporterSEVERAL SUPERMARKETS islandwide have dismissed claims by the Ministry of Commerce, Science and Technology that they have been gouging prices since Hurricane Ivan, despite a 220 per cent reduction on import duties by the Agriculture Ministry.
On Tuesday the commerce ministry said a survey carried out by the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) between October 28 and 30 as well as November 3 and 5 found that 13 retail outlets were selling lettuce, carrots, cabbage and tomatoes for prices significantly higher than their recommended prices.
The CAC said that some retail outlets were selling items as much as 500 per cent higher than the average duty-paid import prices.
PROFIT MARGIN
"We are not gouging any prices," Dorian Bernard, assistant manager at Shoppers' Fair in West Gate in St. James, told The Gleaner yesterday, noting that since the hurricane the supermarket had not adjusted its profit margin on imported vegetables.
In fact, Mrs. Bernard said there were instances where the supermarket has reduced its prices and suggested that the CAC should enquire about the prices at which supermarkets buy their produce before making public statements that they were gouging prices. SuperPlus, one of the island's largest supermarket chains, had four branches listed for price gouging.
Wayne Chen, chief executive officer of the SuperPlus food stores, could not be reached for comment yesterday, but during a television report on Tuesday he described the survey as misleading. He said that SuperPlus food stores, had been reducing prices since the hurricane.
RECOMMENDED PRICES
Meanwhile, Sharon Chin, proprietor of General Food and Supermarket in Ocho Rios, St. Ann, said she found the Ministry's allegations appalling. She said that in several instances she has paid more than the recommended prices for the imported produce purchased from her suppliers.
Yesterday Raymond Pryce, director of the CAC, insisted that an authorised representative of each supermarket had signed to the prices observed by the CAC agents during the survey. "That is a criterion on which we have never wavered," he said.
