An increase in fuel is almost guaranteed to lead to a hike in food prices and several families, including single parents, have said the road ahead will be difficult. Some said yesterday there is already very little they could cut back on as only the basics could be afforded.
During the 2017/2018 Budget on Monday, Finance Minister Colm Imbert raised the price of super gasoline to $3.97 per litre and diesel to $3.41 per litre. This came following price hikes on super and premium fuel the previous year.
These increases, supermarket owners predicted, will lead to an increase in transportation prices, including on the delivery of goods, yet again.
Gail Grant, floor manager at Back to Basics supermarket at Independence Square, Port-of-Spain, said prices of grocery items would therefore have to be adjusted.
“With the last increase in fuel the cost of delivery went up and with yet another price increase in fuel we expect delivery to increase again... no two ways about it, because everything is a cost and delivery is no exception. The last time we had to adjust our prices and this time we expect to do the same,” Grant said.
She said Back to Basics caters to mostly lower income families and does not carry premium brands, but said for some families buying such items is still a challenge.
“We carry mostly local brands... nothing high end and the people who shop here buy basic items...rice, milk, flour, cheese, flour,” Grant said.
Kendell Joseph, 38, from Sea Lots, survives on $480 a month from his food card. Joseph was injured five years ago on the job and to date suffers from a pinched nerve, resulting in him walking with a cane. To add to his woes, the company’s owner sold his business and he got no compensation. The groceries Joseph is able to buy with his food card also have to feed his 65-year-old mother.
“I buy what I need. If I have to buy anything for myself and can afford it is cheese balls for $16.50...it is not one of brand name ones,” Joseph said.
“When I pick up a block of cheese I have to look at the price first and see how that could stretch for the month. Sometimes I leave out the cheese. If price increase again I don’t know how I will make out because there is nothing I could cut down on....I buy two small Trinidad Fresh can juice, mix that with water and stretch that for the month.”
Pensioner Edna Salvary, from Morvant, who was buying minced beef worth $14, complained about the “little bit” she received.
“My God...things real hard...look at the little bit of mince meat. I have to pay for rent, water, lights, Flow and try to eat properly with my $3,500 pension,” Salvary said.
One Belmont single mother of an eight month-old baby and 11-year-old in primary school said she spends close to $2,200 at the grocery each month, adding that the cost of pampers and baby formula are expensive.
“Sometimes I try to go by the wholesalers and buy a cheaper brand of pampers because if there is another price hike I cannot afford to buy the good brand at all. I try my best to make sure my son eat properly because just now he writing SEA, but I try to make the food last too,” the CEPEP worker said.
“Peleau would last two days and whatever I cook like rice and stew chicken I try to make it last two days...so how much more I go cut down again? Things like KFC I don’t but it so often... is only when I could afford it. Sometimes I eat Crix and drink a cup of tea and I have to be contented.”
But pensioner Erma Ruth Peters said she supported the increase in fuel, saying Government had to earn income to keep the country afloat.
“Is all right if fuel goes up. They putting all kinds of things in their bodies like rum that is not good for them,” Peters said.