NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Negotiations between the federal government and food retailers over the Price Control Basket expansion have been prolonged to next Friday, in response to Communications Director Latrae Rahming.
Rahming said: “The federal government is committed to broad public consultation with all stakeholders. We’ll extend the period of conversation to next week Friday. The federal government recognizes that we’ve to share the burden on this effort to fight against the worldwide economic crisis; they may get an extension to next week Friday.”
“I can say that the federal government recognizes that we’ve to share the burden. The negotiations are ongoing.”
He added: “There isn’t a place we’ve arrived at within the negotiations so I believe that the stakeholders will put to the federal government their concerns and the federal government would need to review any accommodations nevertheless it can be premature for me to say what that could be in the course of the negotiations.”
Economic Affairs Minister Michael Halkitis said on Tuesday that the federal government wouldn’t delay the roll-out of its price control expansion plans despite serious concerns and pushback from the local food wholesale and retail industry, adding that the federal government expected to have resolved all the problems by yesterday.
In line with the Retail Grocers Association, while the federal government has announced that 38 items can be added to the Price Control Basket, it’s surely 38 categories of foodstuffs, which might affect greater than 5,000 items to which inventory and price adjustments would need to be made.
The association has argued that the move can be detrimental to the local food wholesale and retail industry.
