KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent– St. Vincent and the Grenadines government said it would implement measures to lessen consumers’ pain as the sugar price rises in the coming days.
Government is the sole importer of the commodity, and there are reports that consumers could be paying as much as EC$2.40, from the 1.75 cents (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) per pound of white sugar and EC$2.05 per pound for brown sugar up to from EC$1.90.
Brown sugar is no longer available at most grocery outlets, while white sugar is currently available.
“… white sugar has moved from US$640 a metric tone, CIF (cost insurance and freight) to US$1,100 US dollars per metric tones, not cost insurance and freight, FOB (free on board,”,” Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said on the state-owned NBC Radio, noting that the increase amounts to over 70 percent increase.
“For brown sugar, the current contract price from the Guyana Sugar Corporation (Guy Suco) is US$560 a metric tone FOB, with the freight costs US$64 a metric tone,” he said, adding that unofficial communication from the company states that they are unable to supply St. Vincent and the Grenadines with the commodity until November.
The state-owned Agricultural Input Warehouse, the only entity authorized to import sugar for sale here, contacted Belize Sugar Industries Limited for assistance, Gonsalves said.
“They’re asking, in Belize, for US$832 a metric tone cost insurance and freight. Do you see the number? From US620 something to US832, over US$200 a metric tone for the brown sugar,” Gonsalves told listeners.
He said the Cabinet would consider the issue later on Wednesday “and to see how we can lessen the pain. There are significant number differences.
“One thing we can consider is if you’re trying to move for the time being the Customs Service Charge on the sugar and associated duties, but it might only bring it down by just about 10 cents a pound.
“Because at these prices, the white sugar would be about $2.40 per pound and the brown sugar about $2.05 at these prices.”
Gonsalves said he was particularly concerned about the price of brown sugar because the product is used by most people here.
He said that if the sugar from Guyana arrives in late November, the measures would be in place for September, October, and part of November.
“These are the issues which we have to deal with on an ongoing basis,” Prime Minister Gonsalves said, adding that he wants a report at the Cabinet meeting on the price of cooking gas “because I like to stay on top of these things. I do my work very well and carefully.
“That’s why we have been able to ease the pain and the hardships on people due to these challenges which we have had to face: COVID, volcanic eruption, hurricane Elsa, drought, the global turmoil in the political economy. I am not talking about some of the big capitalists; I am not talking in St. Vincent; I am talking monopoly capitalists globally taking advantage of the situation to gouge people,” he added.
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