Headlines:
| Cost of basic food items up! |
|
|
| Monday, 05 May 2008 | |
According to the experts, the current food crisis is not about
to end any time soon.In fact, they predict at least 10 more years of struggle for the world's poorest countries, Jamaica included. Two weeks ago, the Statistical Institute and the Bank of Jamaica said food prices had gone up an average 25% since January. For the average Jamaican whose salary is just over $3,500 a week, the hike in the prices of basic items that most households consume every week has meant serious cut-backs in spending. The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) defines a basic household shopping list as consisting of bread, flour, cornmeal, rice, sugar, cooking oil, powdered and condensed milk, chicken, salt-fish along with tinned mackerel, sardines and corned beef. 
According to the CAC's researchers, rice has reflected
the highest increase since the start of the year.Two pounds of rice sold on average for $55.40 in January was being sold for $67.58, a price hike of almost 22%. At the start of the year, two pounds of flour was $58. 89 but rose to $64.21 in April. Cooking oil showed a massive increase from $103.82 in January to $119.88 last month, an increase of almost 16%. Cornmeal saw a 22.6% hike in prices. In January, it cost $69.95 for two pounds of cornmeal but this shot to $85.78 in April. Chicken, which sold for $237.49 per kilogramme in January, jumped by almost 7%, costing $253.22 a kilogramme last month. And a kilo of salt-fish, the traditional food essential turned delicacy, sold last month for $480.54 up from $460.72 in January.  Items on the basic shopping list that dropped in price
include sugar, which sold last month for $57.60 per two pound weight, down from
$58 in January.Powdered milk also recorded an 89cents drop in price between January and April, while sardines dropped from $56.51 in January to $55.44 last month. The price for a 2 pound loaf of bread in April moved from $138.23 to $138.83. Government's subsidy on basic food items ended March 31. |