DOHA: Businessmen are wondering why food prices are still high in Qatar when there is a decline globally. There are some food such like rice and flour are subsidised for Qataris by the government by more than 50 percent and their prices were lower on the local market compared to those in the global markets, reported Al Sharq.
The business people’s concern, however, was with the non-subsidised food items whose prices were declining in the global market but still unchanged in the local market. According to the authorities in Qatar, the prices of non-subsidised food items are also expected to decline in the near future but consumers needed to understand that it was not only the costs of these items that determined their prices but also a number of other factors including the costs of transportation. They said that the best way to keep these prices low was to encourage more investments in the food security sector. This investment which is also part of the Qatar National Vision 2030 can be achieved with creating a partnership between the private and public sectors and efforts to reduce dependence on imports.
According to Ahmed Hussein Al Khalaf, a local business man, the decline of global food prices is dependent on the nature of seasons and this year and last year were considered good harvest seasons with frequent rains and this has led to the reduction of prices on the global market. He said that if these prices are low this must be passed on to consumers across the world.
He said that already food prices had dropped considerably compared to the prices in 2011 which reached its peak because of bad weather in most agricultural countries.
Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Abdoli a member of the Qatar Chamber who chairs the Committee of Agriculture and Environment, said that the global decline in prices was to be mostly seen in producing countries but will not immediately be reflected in non-producing countries. This he said was because there were other expenses like transportation, insurance, rising rents of warehouses in these countries which instead of declining with food prices are simply increasing. He also said that the recent population increases as a result of construction boom has also put pressure on various services and rent.
The Peninsula
