The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A top food retailer yesterday told consumers the industry was “not profiteering” on high-priced eggs, while admitting he could not fault Bahamians for “screaming”.

Rupert Roberts, Super Value’s owner and president, blamed the high prices on the combination of a weather-induced import supply squeeze and the Government’s decision to raise the duty rate on eggs to 30 per cent to protect local producers.

He suggested that the Government reduce the import duty rate to enable the food retail/wholesale industry to meet the peak demand created by the Christmas season.

Mr Roberts conceded that it was “ridiculous” that eggs were now selling at $3.60 per carton in food stores, when their ‘summer time’ price had been around $1.94 - making for a $1.66, or 86 per cent, increase.

“The almost doubled, and the customers are screaming,” he told Tribune Business. “I don’t blame them, but it’s not our fault.

“The Government put 30 per cent duty on eggs to protect the eggs producers in Freeport. The first couple of weeks, we exhausted their supply.

“Eggs are expensive and scarce because of the freeze in the US, and the public is paying 30 per cent on high-priced eggs.”

The freezing weather in the US inevitable means a reduced supply of eggs, thus increasing import prices even before duty is factored in.

“Price control only allows us to mark up eggs 10 per cent, which barely covers refrigeration to Leslie Miller [the Bahamas Electricity Corporation] and breakage,” Mr Roberts said.

“I just want to let people know we’re not profiteering. The Government is making 30 per cent off the duty on high-priced eggs. At Christmas time, when Freeport runs out, they [the Government] should have taken the duty off for the public.”

Elsewhere, Mr Roberts accused the Government of failing to give the food retail and wholesale industry equal treatment with other sectors and businesses when it came to Business Licence payments.

He said the officials responsible for Business Licence payments had demanded that industry players pay 100 per cent of their fees by April 2014, even though he was an investor in other firms that had been allowed to pay quarterly.

And the Government had also allowed companies registering for Value Added-Tax (VAT) to work out payment plans for past due Business Licence fees, leading Mr Roberts to conclude they had been placed in an uneven playing field.

“They have to be fair,” Mr Roberts told Tribune Business. “While myself, Philip Beneby and Robert D’Albenas were negotiating with Mr Forbes and his people [at the Business Licence Unit], they were adamant in telling us we had to pay it in April, and we had to pay it in full.

“I was involved in other businesses that were paying it quarterly. How is that going to work? One rule for me, one rule for you, and one rule for somebody else?”

Referring to the VAT-related Business Licence payment plans, Mr Roberts added: “That’s not what Mr Forbes told us. You pay or you’re out of business. It’s not fair.”