Despite recently implemented temporary price control adjustments, the costs of some produce in grocery stores more than doubled from just a few months ago.
In particular, the price of imported lettuce has increased tremendously in the past few months, from about between $5-$6 for a three-head pack of romaine lettuce, to now $10.99 for the same product. In some stores, an organic pack of three heads of lettuce costs roughly $17.99, all before value-added tax.
The usually more affordable iceberg lettuce has also doubled in price, from roughly $3 per head to now between $5-$6 per head in some grocery stores.
Retail Grocers Association President Philip Beneby yesterday acknowledged the soaring prices and said for their part, grocers can’t control the price of lettuce and other produce despite price controls.
“It’s crazy the price of lettuce. And the thing is they are perishable. What the food stores have to do is while the lettuce is nice and fresh, when they just come in, make sure you have a nice good fresh case of lettuce, because if you don’t sell within a specified period, which is a very short window, then you have to start reducing them just so that they can sell. Maybe you might recoup your cost, or you might just take a loss on it to avoid having to throw it away because it’s so pricey. It’s a very complicated thing and you just have to play it on a day-to-day basis,” he told Guardian Business.
Beneby continued, “The price of lettuce, both the iceberg and the romaine, have increased tremendously all across the US and even in Canada. I think it had something to do with the weather. There are places even in the US where salad has been removed from the menu because of the price. Some stores have cut back tremendously on lettuce, even across the US. As a matter of fact, I realized that even though we were selling iceberg lettuce in the $5-$6 range, it was still cheaper than the US and Canada. Something from Canada showed the lettuce was priced at $11.99 for iceberg lettuce.”
The cost of food in the region overall has gone up. In The Bahamas, the most recent consumer price index for September showed food and non-alcoholic beverages were up 16 percent year over year.
The Davis administration expanded the price control list to include 38 new categories of food and 14 categories of medicines, in an attempt to offset rising inflation.
Beneby, who on behalf of the association rallied against the changes, has said they would do little to ease the rising cost of living currently impacting The Bahamas.
“We can’t control those prices, when they come in the prices are what they are,” he said.
“If you call Sysco – they are some of the big importers of products – you can get a quote from them on items like iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, limes, tomatoes, green peppers. Those are the things we’re seeing price increases on. The price of eggs is like $190 per case. Romain lettuce is like $125 per case, iceberg is almost $125 per case, but has 30 heads to the case compared to romaine, that has 12 heads to the case. So you do the division and see what you’re paying for each item.”
Philip said at this time all Bahamians and businesses can do is adjust their pallets and offerings.
“Some of the restaurants, instead of using lettuce they were using spinach. Because the prices have been set, let’s say on sandwiches, they’ve already been set but because of the high costs so you would substitute lettuce for kale or spinach,” he said.
