SHOPPERS ARE WARNED not to expect any ease in their grocery bills any time soon.
Food industry officials are pleading with consumers to realise that they too are victims of price hikes and will not likely be in a position to offer discounts.
"One has to recognise that increased prices are a phenomenon that is common to the entire world. Also we must recognise that food is but one aspect of this problem with relation to price increases.
"From an operating point of view, the food sector – supermarket and distribution – is subject to the same pressures with respect to increase in costs of doing business. This inflation of prices also affects us within the industry."
The businessman, who requested anonymity, reminded consumers that retailers were also vulnerable to the global inflation of energy costs.
His advice to consumers is to be "choosier".
"They have to buy quality and get value for their money," he said.
While he anticipated retailers would become more innovative in luring clients to their aisles, he cautioned this might not result in markdowns.
"Because the cost of doing business is as high and difficult as it is, it's going to be difficult to offer discounts. What we have to do as an industry is to try and source at better prices," he stated.
Attempts to do so have been made but increases in standard of living in countries traditionally offering better prices such as China and parts of South America – where wages had historically been low in comparison to those in developed countries – are also making those markets more costly, he explained.
David Neilands, managing director of Super Centre Limited, also shared this view but stated bureaucracy, language barriers and standards presented challenges in these markets, as they have been for years.
He recommended one of the ways shoppers could help to minimise costs on their food bills was to support locally grown produce and manufactured goods.
"We need to start supporting one another again, particularly the local farmers, and planting our own food again," he said.