JEDDAH, 23 August 2005 — During the past few weeks consumers have noticed and are complaining of the increase in the price of both sugar and chicken at grocery stores. Retailers and importers expect the price to continue increasing without giving an explanation. The increase of such staple consumer products is not only affecting the purchasing ability of low and medium income families but also led to the increase in the price of restaurant meals and other food products with sugar or chicken as an ingredient, which is almost everything people eat here.
The purchasing supervisor at Sawary supermarket on Sari Street, Ahmed Mostafa, told Arab News that like any product, prices depend on supply and demand.
He said that the price of sugar and rice and other items continually changed because of the laws of supply and demand, but there had not been had any big change in the price of sugar. “There is an increase in the price of imported frozen chicken because of the ban on importing birds from East Asia due to the spread of bird flu, so all the importers are depending on suppliers from France and Brazil and this is creating an increase in demand and therefore an increase in prices,” he said. There could be some difference in prices of the same item from one grocery store to another and Mostafa said that this has to do with the kind of agreement between the retailer and supplier, whether it is long or short term, for large quantities or small, one order or several or if there is a special promotion.
A purchasing supervisor of another grocery chain store who wished not to be named said that there has been an increase in the price of sugar and chicken for the past three weeks and expects the increase to continue but was not sure why.
“The price of imported chicken has increased three folds during the last month maybe because of the high price of the euro. Even the price of local chicken has increased but only one fold maybe due to the increase in the price of raw material to feed the chicken.” He said that consumers who prefer fresh chicken demanded the local brands, but the imported frozen chicken had the advantage of being sold in pieces rather than as a whole so there was more demand for it. Sugar had increased by between half a riyal to 75 halalas in a week. He thought that the increase was from the place of origin as there is an international increase in the price of sugar due to demand.
“We receive a weekly price list from our suppliers on all items and we compare the prices of the different supplies and make our orders; lately they have all increased the prices on sugar and chicken among other things. The government does not intervene in pricing so it all depends on the supply and demand,” he said.