Yesterday we told you about the increase in the price of eggs. A crate, which previously had a wholesale price of $96, is now $105. That's about 30 cents per egg, and the manager of the Belize Poultry Association explained that some grocers were selling at 50 cents per egg.
Today, the Policy Analyst for the Ministry of Agriculture explained why the price of eggs has increased via Zoom.
Milagro Matus, Policy Analyst, Ministry of Agriculture
"And it's not only eggs has gone up, we have bread going up, we have corn going up and its important to mention the fact that corn has gone up from $1.75-$2.00 a pound. You have soybean going up by almost $.25 so all the commodities have gone up in terms of price. All inputs into production and so in terms of agriculture production from the seeds, we have seeds going up 20% increases and those are commodities that are already GST exempt. Most of them have no duties applied, maybe only in environmental tax. Corn seed has increase, the fertilizers especially the ones that use a lot of nitrogen have increased over 100% in price, the herbicides, insecticides - 50%. The logistics cost. Thats another area that we have seen the tripling of cost increase. You have the 40ft container coming in from Mexico the prices have gone us by 67%, doing trade with Guatemala the prices have gone up 88%, so the global situation, the war between Ukraine and Russia which is one of the biggest mineral suppliers has really affected the price of fertilizers and inputs necessary to produce. You have the fuel cost and while the government has been supporting with subsidizing the diesel, the supply chain calls for for vehicles that might not necessarily use diesel, so the cost are still bumping up. These are the supply chain challenges that most producers are being affected in relation to agriculture production. All inputs have gone up."
The Poultry Association's manager had called on the Belize Bureau of Standards to look into what he considered price gouging. today, they issued a release clarifying their mandate. It says, quote, "as the BBS continues to have a vested interest in the protection of consumers, it does so strictly within the scope for which its mandate and resources provide. The bureau, guided by the Metrology Act (Chapter 294), ensures fairness in trade for vendors and consumers through the verification of measuring instruments while the Standards Act (Chapter 295) ensures conformity of food and non-food products to established technical regulations such as the labelling standard for pre-packaged good and specifications for biodegradable products." End quote.
And Matus explained that it can't be considered price gouging just yet.
Milagro Matus, Policy Analyst, Ministry of Agriculture
"First of all, we have to do an assessment to determine if indeed there is price gouging, because fine, you sell the egg at $.30 at the wholesale level, but by the time I take that home you have to add a cost. If I have to bag it, you have to have a cost. If they break you have to add these costs and I don't know if you ever purchase the little crates of eggs and you realize that they are stuck in the crate itself and you have to peel it off. These things happen and these loss are either the consumer's loss or the people who are selling it at the retail level. So we have to do an assessment to determine first if there is price gouging or if it's just cost associated with doing business, but if it is that it's a price gouging situation then the supplies control unit should be able to come in. The challenge with eggs is the fact that it is not under the price control regulation, meaning it's not commodities listed like sugar, flour that are listed in the supplies control regulations and it's not price controlled. Right now, what the supplies control unit is doing, its going over all the price control and price regulated commodities and determining if they need to be updated. There needs to be a proper assessment to be done before we can say that there is price gouging and thereafter then I believe they can decide if they put inside the price control regulations, but we can't assume that its price gouging."
