The Consumer Protection Office was at it again today in Belize City – checking scales and weights in supermarkets on the north side. We found them at Sav-U where we used the opportunity to speak to Adita Castillo, who’s the Managing Director of the Castillo Group about the high price of imported food. The Prime Minister complained about it earlier this week and she told us that lowering prices is not as simple as one may think.
Adita Castillo, Santiago Castillo Group
“We’ve already seen some prices starting to go down. For example sour cream, some yogurts, especially the dairy – cheese and anything to do with dairy we’ve started seeing a decrease in prices. But on the other hand, unfortunately, there are other things like juices and baked beans and certain things that I have just received last week that have gone up in price. If we listen to the news, especially USA news, for some reason, I guess maybe it is because the dollar is weak, that also does not help with the commodities.
But on the other hand now for you all to know, products coming out of Europe now, for example our next shipment of powder milk from Europe will go down in prices. Within a month we should have that here. But unfortunately Europe takes maybe two to three months, by the time you order it and it is shipped, it takes three months to get here. Because the Euro is down, items coming out of Europe, especially like I said the powder milk and the Gallo cheese and so, our next shipment will go down. So that is a bit of good news for us too.”
Castillo concluded that us products have been generally more resistant to lowering than those produced in Europe.
