Economy August 19, 2022 | 2:47 pm

Retailers advocate for more support to face the increase in their production costs

There are 65,000 grocery stores in the country, according to the United Retailers Group. ( FREE DIARY / NEAL CRUZ )

Despite the fact that the government delivered the sum of 100 million pesos to the country’s retail sector to carry out the development plan of joint purchases to promote the strategy of the “Pact for Fair Prices,” representatives of the small merchants today pleaded for more support to face the increase in the production cost of their businesses.”The government has already put in the hands of our sector the money for us to try to make the joint purchases to sell the food cheaper through the colmados”, but it is necessary to carry out the dialogue table to evaluate the operating costs of retail businesses, which went from 15% in 2021 to 23% this year, indicated the president of the United Retailers Group of the Dominican Republic, Ricardo Rosario.Last August 10, the government signed with several retail associations and traders of the country the “Pact for fair prices,” which seeks to eliminate intermediaries in the distribution and supply chain of small businesses to lower the costs of different products of the basic family basket.It will be from next week that the first meeting will be held to analyze mechanisms to lower the prices of at least 26 mass consumption products in the urban zone and 17 in the rural zone, whose prices are already being evaluated by a survey carried out in conjunction with Pro Consumidor.

Rosario said that he would take to the meeting with the government sector the main problems of the sector, which groups more than 65,000 grocery stores that supply the basic needs of the people who live in the most vulnerable sectors of the country, but which cannot reduce their prices due to a matter of “bureaucracy.”

“We are immersed in the framework of unfair competition with supermarkets that receive benefits and incentives from the government,” he said. He also considered it necessary for the Price Stabilization Institute (Inespre) to transfer 50,000 low-cost food combos to the colmados so that they can also sell them to their clients.

The representative of the country’s retail sector made this statement before holding a meeting with shopkeepers of Santo Domingo East and officials of the Ministries of Industry, Commerce, and Mipymes and the National Council for the Promotion and Support of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (Promipyme).

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Paul Tierney

August 19, 2022 3:14 pm

It always appears here and worldwide small businesses with less weight with government are the ones bearing expenses which the favored large businesses are made immune by accomodation. The end consumers are stuck with the high costs by the practice.