Watchdog aware of sugar price increase

CONSUMERS will have to dig deeper into their pockets to buy Ramu Sugar products, says the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) commissioner and chief executive officer Paulus Ain.
This follows Ramu Agri Industries Limited’s (Rail’s) recent announcement to increase factory-gate prices for its refined sugar products by five per cent, from June 1. The increase has been attributed to high operational and material costs.
“Rail’s price increases are mostly driven by in-country costs, particularly its domestic production volume which is greater than its import volume,” Ain said.
“Given Rail’s high domestic production volume, the ICCC concluded that despite a reduction in international prices recently, this may not have a significant bearing on Rail’s domestic prices.
“We have observed that Rail has been keeping its prices constant from 2018 to 2021, while international sugar prices have been increasing during that period thus giving an indication that Rail was not sensitive to movements in international sugar prices.”
However, since December 2021, Rail has been gradually increasing its factory-gate prices between three per cent and five per cent as the global inflationary pressure continue to persists in the domestic economy.
Ain said ICCC was equally concerned about the increase in prices since sugar was a basic household item.
The ICCC, under its price monitoring role, monitors the prices of the popular Ramu Mill White Sugar 1kg packs at the factory-gate level and at the retail level, against relevant international benchmark prices.
“If there is a significant divergence observed between the domestic prices and international prices of sugar, then the ICCC may require Rail to justify.
“And if the ICCC is not satisfied with the justification, it can recommend to the minister for treasury to declare sugar for stringent price controls.
“The ICCC also urges all the other importers of sugar to reflect only their true costs in their
pricing, and they must not raise their prices unnecessarily to the detriment of our consumers,” Ain said.
The ICCC will continue to monitor sugar prices to ensure consumers are not disadvantaged in terms of fair pricing.