SUPERMARKETS Association president Rajiv Diptee and economist Dr Vaalmiki Arjoon said there should be a discussion about how to strengthen deficiencies in local food production and distribution that have been exposed by the covid19 pandemic.

Referring to concerns raised by his predecessor Balliram Maharaj on Wednesday about the pandemic fuelling higher food prices, Diptee said, "It is quite comprehensive and speak to the facts.

"There needs to be frank conversation around a cohesive framework to couch a strategy to mitigate these factors with the consumer at the heart of any policy."

Diptee suggested there needs to be a hard look at "where import substitution can have a positive erosion on the net food import bill."

This begins, he said with local food production and a meaningful look at how this is achieved to coax consumers towards those avenues of consumption.

Arjoon said, "Food prices are climbing sharply. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) food price index increased by 34 per cent between June 2020 and 2021."

He said there were surges in the prices of several staple commodities over the last year. He cited increases in soyabean oil, palm oil, sugar, meat and whole milk powder by 124, 59, 47 and 20 per cent as examples. "Such price increases occurred due to the surge in consumption and 'revenge' or pent-up demand globally."

Arjoon said locally, food prices increased by 7.55 per cent from 2016 to 2020 and 2.8 per cent over the last year.

"For specific staples, the index of food prices over 2016 to 2020 shows increases in the price of bread and cereals of 2.68 per cent; 4.62 per cent for meats; 12.55 per cent for fish; 12.13 per cent for milk, cheese and eggs; 11.60 per cent for butter, margarine and edible oils."

He also said the prices of fruits and vegetables, and non-alcoholic drinks increased by 9.65 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively over this same five-year period. Last year, many price increases were attributed to global food shortages, "which affected our import costs, and supply disruptions locally due to the lockdowns."

While local food distributors would have faced higher foreign prices and transport costs in importing food, Arjoon said, "The competition to sell them between several large supermarket chains would have helped to marginally suppress some of the price increases to the customers."

He said some local farmers have benefited from some increased labour productivity and a lower wage bill, through hiring Venezuelan workers, while others used greenhouse technology, so their production would not be affected by weather conditions.

"The agro-processing and agricultural sectors have great scope to become net exporters and foreign exchange earners. They can do it using a co-operative model that brings together farmers and big business," he added. "The farmers have the land and the farming expertise. The large businesses have funding and equipment. Together they form a co-operative and all partners share everything."

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