AMMAN — Head of the
Amman Chamber of Commerce Khalil
Haj Tawfik said that the recent increase in demand for imported foodstuffs was
not accompanied by an increase in prices, proof that the government tries to
ease the burden on citizens.
اضافة اعلان
Haj Tawfik told
Jordan
News that commercial activity so far this year is better than last year,
due, in no small measure, to “receipt of salaries and the abolition of
restrictive measures related to the
COVID-19 pandemic”, and “despite the
continued decline in the purchasing power of citizens”.
He stressed that
the commercial sector has made great efforts to help the people in recent days
and called for concerted efforts to ensure a continuous flow of goods to the
Kingdom in order to maintain a safe stock, “in light of the disruption in
supply chains, the prevention of some countries from exporting, and the
continuation of the
Russian-Ukrainian crisis, with its repercussions on the
grain markets, feed, oil prices, and freight charges”.
Haj Tawfik stressed
that retail stores played an important role in increasing the offers in the
markets, and “sometimes sold for less than the price cap and less than the
basic cost of some materials to help citizens face the recession, and to cope
with the intense competition among merchants”.
He also said that
the stability of the prices of staples associated mainly with Ramadan should
have seen the consumer food basket grow more than the 20 per cent it is
witnessing now over last
Ramadan, blaming the increase in the prices of some
food commodities for the percentage.
According to him,
the price of some agricultural produce rose due to limited production, caused
by the recent frost wave, but the prices of imported goods stayed the same. He
warned against issuing “incorrect information that exploits people’s conditions
and tampers with their food security”.
Minister of State
for Media Affairs and Government Spokesperson
Faisal Shboul told
Jordan News that the government “took many proactive measures when it sensed a discrepancy
in the prices of some commodities, especially in light of the rise in freight
wages”, to alleviate the impact of the increase in commodity prices globally.
Among the measures
taken, he said, was “reducing customs duties and restructuring them, in
addition to eliminating the 4 percent tax on vegetable oils, and reducing taxes
on some feed production inputs”.
He added that
“regarding the prices of fruits and vegetables, there is an agricultural period
during which prices are high, but now the prices are stabilizing again”.
“If you compare the
prices of foodstuffs in all countries of the world, you will notice that there
has been a rise. We cannot completely cancel the price hike, but we strive to
mitigate the impact of this rise on citizens,” Shboul said.
Executive Director
of the
Consumer Protection Society Maher Al-Hajjat told
Jordan News,
however, that “food prices are high and constantly rising; for example, the
price of minced meat increased by 100 percent, while the price of a kilo of
Romanian meat increased between JD0.5 to JD1”, adding that the prices of some
vegetables “were high and remained so”.
He added that “some
kinds of rice also witnessed a price increase, and at the same time, the size
of the packages was reduced”.
Hajjat believes
that prices will remain as they are during the coming period, adding that “we
were expecting that prices might decrease during the second half of Ramadan,
but it seems that this will not happen”.
“Traders have sufficient stocks of foodstuffs in warehouses,
and they have purchased these materials before the global rise in commodity
prices occurred. In this case, there is no justification for some traders to
say that the rise in commodity prices is caused by the global rise,” he
stressed.
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