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The cost of food has witnessed a significant surge of 5.1% over the past year, according to reports by the Statistics Division under the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Governance.
The report highlights that the majority of this increase is attributed to the current prices of bread, cereals, and the manufacture of other food products like soup and artificial honey.
Among all food groups, the manufactured products witnessed the highest increase, rising by 11.7% in the past twelve months, contributing 19.1% to the overall Food inflation.
The press release highlights that this change was mainly caused by an increase in the average prices of BBQ Sauce, Ketchup Mayonnaise, and Salt.
Vegetables also had a significant impact on Food inflation, as their prices increased by 4.1% and contributed 18.5% to Food inflation, making them the second largest contributor.
According to the latest data, the Index for All Items Less Food and Energy increased by 8.3% due to the rise in the indexes for Communication, Miscellaneous Goods and Services, and Restaurants and Hotels.
The index for Communication remained stable at 26.7%, while the index for Restaurants and Hotels witnessed a significant rise of 15.4%. Additionally, the index for Miscellaneous Goods and Services increased by 10.3%.
In February 2024, the Monthly Consumer Price Index witnessed a slight increase of 0.1%.
The Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages category also increased by 0.1%, with the index for Food slightly decreasing by -0.1% during the month.
Among the nine subcategories of Food, five of them showed an increase in their index values. The index for Food Products N.E.C rose by 5.5%, while the index for Fruit increased by 3.4% and the index for Milk, Cheese and Eggs advanced by 2.8%.
The indexes for Sugar, Jam, Honey Chocolate, and Confectionery and Vegetables had smaller increases of 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively.
However, the index for All Items Less Food and Energy declined by -0.2% in February, mainly due to the decrease in the indexes for Transport Services (-0.6%) and Furnishings, Household Equipment, and Routine Household Maintenance (-0.3%).
For example, Buying a pack of grapes or strawberries in America cost between US$1 to US$3, and when the same fruits reaches Antigua supermarkets, it cost the people of Antigua US$10 and US$15, sometimes US$20. Are Antigua high food prices escalated because of the high cost of custom duty at the port?? I live in America and we here don’t pay that ridiculous prices on food items. Antigua needs to saved their agricultural lands so they can grow their own foods and vegetables and stop heavily dependency on foreign imports. Also the island needs it own manufacturing. For example, right now in the state where I am living five sweet corns is US$1.00, while in Antigua three sweet corn is US$5.00 or EC$13.00. Every week here in America, we have special on food items, where you get 3 to 5 items for the price of one. Something needs to be done to control the high food prices in Antigua. Stop blaming inflation or economics of scales on everything.
Real talk. It is ridiculous that Antigua doesn’t grow its own food! And before anybody says anything about droughts, look into Aquaponics. There is no excuse for this.