When told that prices of rice, a staple food for all income groups, had risen drastically in this country, a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Commerce reportedly suggested that consumers look for other alternatives to wolf down.
That members of our ministries dismiss such concerns so flippantly is a cause for grave concern. Rice is a popular and economical dish for all. Laborers sweating under the hot sun look forward to the simple and affordable rice dishes during their lunch breaks, as do hard-working limousine drivers. So do housewives on a limited budget who have to manage against an ever-increasing tide of prices for essential supplies for the family.
There are single Saudis today who earn no more than SR1,000 a month, or heads of households trying to get by on salaries of SR2,000 per month - money that is spent on food, rent and a host of other essentials. Any significant price increase such as what we are witnessing now, with 20 percent being the norm, is like a death warrant to their hopes of salvation.
To suggest that an alternative to rice be considered is akin to saying, "go eat sand" because that's the only thing one can find possibly cheaper than rice nowadays. Or to explain such exorbitant increases flippantly by suggesting it is due to the rising euro is an affront to our intellect.
What does a rising euro have to do with the rice fields in India or Pakistan? Have these countries joined, as one writer wondered, the European Union? Or have the rice fields been transferred to fertile plains of France and Italy to be harvested there and then shipped over to our country? Or is it that we are gullible enough to swallow the concept of any price increase by such facetious explanations?
Is there a justification for the phenomenal rise in prices of consumer goods, particularly foodstuffs and medicines? Or are the traders unscrupulously taking advantage of the lack of a consumer protection agency in this country? And what about the Shoura Council? Don't they read the local papers and take a pulse reading on issues troubling the populace? And rather than considering an investigation into this phenomenon of rising prices of foodstuffs, it is unfortunate that the Ministry of Commerce chose to adopt an approach which has not sat well with most consumers.
The local Internet chats are buzzing with talks of boycotting specific food producers and distributors for the marked increase in the prices of their brands on supermarket shelves. A father of four with a meager income said, "We may not eat sand, but we will not line their (merchants and traders) pockets with our hard earned money either."
The Ministry of Commerce must work together with merchants to come up with an amicable solution to suit all sides. With Ramadan around the corner, such would indeed be a blessing.
