WINDHOEK – “Sustained and high levels of economic growth and employment, wealth creation and income distribution and equality will require more deliberate and rigorous action, especially policy interventions or state support to our budding industries if we are to reach the goals set aside in the National Development Plan, NDP4.”
With this stern warning, Minister of Trade and Industry, Calle Schlettwein, announced the implementation of a retail charter to control the runaway food prices that are making it increasingly difficult for thousands of households to put a plate of food on the table. Schlettwein’s announcement in the National Assembly yesterday for a controlling body came on the eve of the 24th national budget, aiming to deliver to the needs of the masses.
Like punch-drunk boxers, Namibian consumers were greeted by a barrage of stiff increases in the prices of meat and meat products since the start of 2014 while also battling outstanding debts of some N$36.6 billion. The next blow came when the new price structure of Namib Poultry Industries (NPI) was announced and it came to light that retailers are marketing up factory prices between 50 and 100 percent, which was the straw that broke the camel’s back and prompted Schlettwein to announce the coming of a retail charter.
Due to scarcity because of last year’s drought, red meat prices shot up between 15 and 20 percent in early January while fish prices were dramatically increased by up to 80 percent for certain cuts like hake.
The seemingly endless tide of bad news for consumers will now be stemmed by the soon to come retail charter in cooperation with various stakeholders to increase transparency in price composition as one of its elements, according to Schlettwein.
Schlettwein said while the ex-factory price for a whole chicken was indicated to the ministry as N$31.50 per 1.5 kg, a New Era investigation showed that retail prices for the same chicken varied from N$44.99 to N$60 in some places.
The hefty increase in chicken prices was defended by managing director of NPI, David Koen, who said while “we rejoice in the fact that the price of imported maize as fodder for our chickens has dropped by N$300 per tonne in the past week, the price of oil soy cake as other vital fodder has not come down. About 75% of our chickens’ diet is made up of these two feeds and without them we can’t survive as there is no alternative. We import maize now at about N$3 300 per tonne compared to N$3 800 a few weeks ago, but we are faced with a new dilemma: due to the drought in the maize production areas of South Africa, maize is becoming increasingly scare to import.
In the past, we were still able to acquire maize from these areas in March but this year the maize tap from those places will run dry as our neighbour is battling with its own situation,” he lamented.
Schlettwein said the Namibian Competition Commission and the Namibia Trade Forum have been tasked to verify actual cost structures and production levels, to monitor farm-gate or ex-factory and retail prices in the country, and to monitor what is happening in the rest of the SADC Region.
Information obtained from this policing exercise will enable effective monitoring of the impacts of the measures and for timely corrective measures when required.
Schlettwein concluded by reminding the National Assembly that growth is not an automatic birth right for an economy. “For an economy to grow, it has to create the right conditions for such growth to take place.”
By Deon Schlechter