The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

and YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporters

Super Value is aiming to reduce egg prices to $1.99 per carton "as quickly as possible" amid hopes its solar roll-out can contain surging energy costs to just a 10-20 percent increase, its president revealed yesterday.

Debra Symonette told Tribune Business the 13-store chain has enjoyed a "big relief" on egg prices, which it was selling on 'special' at $5 for two dozen-strong cases of the Hillandale brand this weekend, after farmers replenished their stocks following a devastating outbreak of bird flu.

Disclosing that food prices in general continue to stabilise, with far fewer of the "huge" increases experiences post-pandemic, she nevertheless warned Bahamian consumers that costs "may not go all the way down" to where they were prior to COVID's outbreak in March 2020.

"We've definitely seen a big relief in the price of eggs," Ms Symonette told this newspaper. "We're hoping to take it even further down in the near future. I think farmers have just got over the crisis they were in with the bird flu and shipping costs. When all the birds died that was a major issue, and they've managed to replenish the stocks so they have more eggs available now.

"We're really hoping to get the price down to $1.99 per dozen case. If we can do it for next week, we will. We're going to do it as soon as possible. We have seen a bit of a decrease in beef and poultry, but otherwise things are remaining pretty much the same. At least we're not seeing as many huge price increases as we were before. We'll probably see a little increase here and there, but nothing like what we were seeing before."

Ms Symonette said a reduction in shipping and freight costs, increased food supplies and an easing of the post-COVID supply chain bottlenecks had all factored into a levelling off food prices, although data from the Bahamas National Statistical Institute showed that inflation remains prevalent as food and non-alcoholic drink costs were up 9 percent year-over-year for February 2023.

And the Super Value president added of the outlook: "They [prices] may not go all the way down. Consumers will see a decrease in some products, like with the eggs, beef and poultry. Hopefully other products will follow suit, but it all depends on the markets.

"Things are hopeful. We're seeing the decrease in eggs. Consumers can just remain hopeful other prices will do the same and come down to a reasonable level that they can afford. I wouldn't want to put a timeline on it. We're hoping that it will be very shortly, but some things we can't predict."

Ms Symonette said the installation of roof-top solar panels across all Super Value's stores is now 50-60 percent complete, having previously revealed that it has slashed $400,000 off its annual energy bill through employing renewables at its warehouse alone. The supermarket chain is hoping the roll-out has come just in time to mitigate the up to 163 percent increase in Bahamas Power & Light's (BPL) fuel charge that will coincide with peak summer consumption.

"The solar is definitely helping us," she said. "The bills we have seen are increase after increase. We're watching the rate, and seeing it go up bit by bit. It's a relief to have that solar in place to mitigate the increase, and I would say the roll-out is 50-60 percent complete."

Revealing that Super Value expects the chain-wide installation to be finished in two to three months if all goes to plan, Ms Symonette said of the BPL fuel charge: "I know when they announced it we were looking at up to a 60 percent increase in electricity. We're hoping that the 60 percent increase will be cut down to maybe 10-20 percent - maybe even to where we offset them. Summer is coming when we use electricity the most, and that's when these rates will be swinging up and up.

Other Bahamian food retailers yesterday confirmed that the large post-COVID spikes in food prices have “tapered off” and “stabilised" over the past four months.

Allan Butler, managing director of Milo B Butler & Sons, told Tribune Business there “has not been that sharp increase in food prices” since the start of 2023 with inflationary pressures having “tapered off” to produce smaller rises.

“I don’t think we will ever see the pre-pandemic prices again. To be quite frank, I think those days are gone because of the fact that there are a lot of costs that have been incurred, and that we are incurring now, that we didn’t even have pre-pandemic that also affects the prices,” he added.

Cereals and snack prices have increased, while meat costs have also gone up across-the-board. Produce is currently experiencing a steady increase due to the seasonality of fruits and vegetables, but this is “expected".

Mr Butler added: “Produce prices change every week based upon different situations and weather changes and so on. This is somewhat acceptable, but the other items that tend to not change as much, however, you have seen a general increase in prices in those areas.

“You have also seen an increase in the price of grains straight across the board. So that means things like your oatmeal, your cream of wheat, your farina and all of those things with grain effects, you will see a general increase in the price of flour. We have also seen an increase in the price of rice. We have also seen an increase in the price of tomato paste. Those type of items have all seen increases where the base product has been affected.”

The major food price spikes seen after COVID began have eased, and Mr Butler is no longer seeing those “sporadic increases" that the food distribution industry incurred during the pandemic. “Even during COVID-19 we had to deal with heavy spikes due to shipping shortages and so on, and we still have those shortages but nowhere near where they used to be," he added.

Bronson Beneby, general manager of Courtesy Supermarket, said prices are “pretty much stable” despite several items increasing. “Some items in the produce section are increasing, but they are seasonal items and, with their time, the prices normally increase such as lettuce and limes and stuff like that,” he added.

“Eggs right now are pretty much going back to normal. There are one or two items but there is no drastic increase. Meat items right now are pretty much stable. Breadbasket items are pretty much stable. There is no major increase and nothing much to be alarmed about.”