Fit for consumption

Wednesday, 2 January 2013 00:24 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Raids by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) have unearthed stinking piles of food in key economic centres that speak of the massive problems in Sri Lanka’s supply chain and continued challenges in providing good quality food at reasonable prices to consumers.

The oft-heard lament from people is that the prices of basic foods are too high. Even the Central Bank figure of 9.2 per cent inflation for December, despite being touted as “single digit” remains irrelevant for consumers who are battling to deal with prices that increase almost monthly. Food prices are usually decided by vegetable and meat prices that become even dearer during the festive season.

Bunched with higher fuel prices, they set the stage for the biggest grouse against the Government.

CAA raids in Pettah and Dambulla found 35,000 kilograms of rotten potatoes. In addition 200 kilograms of contaminated dry fish were uncovered in Pettah. On Monday headlines proclaimed how 45 tons of rotten big onions were recovered from several Lak Sathosa warehouses on a tip-off by the CAA just days before they were to be released for human consumption. Clearly there was complicity within the Trade Ministry for this transaction and while payment has been suspended, it is clear that such corruption can take place in the future. Moreover, such instances could have occurred in the past with none being the wiser.

Low quality food sold at high prices is a constant issue within Sri Lanka. Even though the Government has attempted to resolve the issue with the introduction of plastic crates, there are clearly larger problems that remain to be resolved. One obvious point would be to strengthen the CAA and other consumer organisations that can affectively monitor the quality of food in distribution nerve centres such as Dambulla and Pettah. The other is strong legal redress for the offenders with large fines. Consumers also need to be stakeholders in this endeavour by ensuring that trades people are not allowed to sell substandard products with impunity.

One dire need is to build infrastructure to connect the different economic centres such as Dambulla to Colombo so that there is a cost effective mode of transportation. Railway has been suggested time and again for this so that farmers have an alternative and efficient way to send their goods to market. If transport costs are reduced and the monopoly of the middlemen is broken, then there is more chance for prices to reduce.

Another less expensive method would be to build cool rooms and storage facilities in the economic centres so that thousands of kilos of vegetables and fruits that are dumped on a daily basis can be stored and transported to Colombo and other urbanised areas for consumption. In a country where food prices are a growing problem and many people find it hard to make ends meet, it is a shame to waste such large amounts of vegetables.

If there is an effective way to support the market to keep prices stable and increase the income of farmers in the process, then consumers too would benefit in a more sustainable and practical way. If these larger and more important problems were solved, then people would have less reason to complain about the high cost of living.