Dear Editor,
I read the half page ads which indicate that the National Milling Co. of Guyana Inc. (Namilco) has taken the unilateral decision not to reduce the price of flour they produce by 16% being the VAT element removed under the provisions of the 2008 National Budget.
I agree that there have been rises in the world market price for wheat so as a result there must be an increase in the price for the local flour. For some reason though flour is still an expensive commodity in Guyana when even compared with some smaller Caribbean islands.
Yours faithfully,
(name and address
supplied)
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to the National Milling Co. of Guyana Inc for their comments and received the following response from Mr B. Sukhai, the Managing Director:
“Thank you for forwarding the letter written by an unnamed reader for our comments.
It seems as if the letter writer is bent on being malicious and he/she is obviously not well informed on what is happening around the globe with the rising price of flour and flour based products.
I advise him/her to do a Google search on “flour prices” to know what is happening in Fiji, Pakistan, Egypt, USA, Canada, Italy, UK, Antigua to name a few countries.
Today’s (March 27) Trinidad Guardian screamed on the front page that NFM has increased prices by 39% which would take their prices way above our current prices. In Jamaica flour sells for US$46 per 100-pound bag. The last price I received from New York yesterday was US$48 per 100-pound bag. In fact I would challenge the writer to find a single country where similar high quality flour is selling cheaper than Guyana where a 45-kg bag sells currently for US$30.
Perhaps the letter writer is unaware that the market is now open and Namilco now have to compete with foreign imports so if prices are cheaper elsewhere as he/she claims, then some shrewd businessman would ensure flour is imported and sold cheaper than Namilco’s.”.
