Growing uneasiness due to increases in staple food prices

The prices of the leading food items of the family basket vary significantly among markets, grocery stores, and supermarkets in the capital.

Santo Domingo, DR

The upward escalation of essential products continued yesterday in markets, grocery stores, and plazas. Both merchants and housewives warn that incomes are not enough to supply homes, and sales are reduced.

In the Nuevo markets on Duarte Avenue and the Villa Consuelo sector, in the capital, bananas from Barahona oscillate at prices between RD$10 and RD$14. According to the merchants, they have dropped in price since they were sold at RD$22.

While green bananas are priced between RD$3 and RD$3.50, cabbage is sold at up to RD$70 per unit and RD$190 per carton of eggs.

Other prices
Cassava is offered at RD$10 and sweet potato at RD$15 per pound, meanwhile white yucca at RD$40 and the so-called coconut at RD$35.

Yams are sold at RD$45; potatoes range between RD$20 and RD$30, garlic from RD$80 to RD$90 per pound. Onions are RD$20 and RD$25, red beans at RD$65 and RD$70, Gira RD$45, and white beans at RD$50 and RD$60 a pound.

Dried pigeon peas, cubanela chili at RD$25 and peppers at RD$40, while Barceló tomatoes at RD$20 and salad tomatoes at RD$25. Rice, depending on the quality, has prices from RD$20 to RD$35, according to several merchants consulted by Listin Diario, who like consumers are screaming, because they allege that the instability in the prices of their suppliers is a matter of concern because today they buy at one cost and tomorrow at another.

“The variation of prices in the merchandise we buy is an issue that fills us with uncertainty since we do not know how to maintain sales control with customers,” said Juan de Dios Martínez, a merchant at the Mercado Nuevo de la Duarte.

Pressures
Martínez explained that the situation for those who, like him, are engaged in commerce is problematic because, in addition to the imbalance of prices, they have to deal with the pressure of consumers who understand that they are to blame for the increase and even brand them as thieves.

Fausto Beras, also a merchant, considers that if prices continue to rise, the sector will go bankrupt because customers do not want to pay what they are worth.

“People want to buy, but they don’t have cash because there is no money on the street,” he said. Some grocery store owners lament that the prices of various articles of mass consumption have skyrocketed and that no one is doing anything to stop these increases.

They called on President Luis Abinader to take adequate measures because they will have to abandon their businesses if this continues.

Socorro Abreu joins this complaint, who says that she can no longer resist the family basket’s high prices, that everything is expensive, and nobody gives an answer.

In grocery stores

In the colmados, the panorama is not very encouraging; an egg is worth between RD$7 and RD$8 and plantains between 18 to 25 pesos, depending on the size. Yucca at RD$15 and beans between RD$65 and RD$70. Rice, depending on the brand, costs from RD$25 to RD$35. In supermarkets, potatoes cost between RD$26 and RD$30, plantains at RD$19, yucca at RD$16 and green bananas at RD$12 per pound, sweet potatoes at RD$38, onions at RD$53 and garlic at RD$140 and rice from RD$29 to RD$37 per pound. Egg cartons of 30 units from RD$175 to RD$224 in some supermarkets consulted.