Ramadan is coming. Tunisians are going to welcome their favorite month of the year. A sacred period that they certainly await impatiently, but the fear of shortages and soaring prices spoils their enthusiasm. The President of the Republic Kaïs Saïed, who opened the front of improving purchasing power, wants Ramadan 2023 to go off without a hitch. He has repeatedly given clear instructions to the government to put in place all the necessary conditions for the wide availability of food products at affordable prices. This through the pursuit at the same pace of the fight once morest speculation.
In fact, the holy month of this year coincides with a very difficult situation marked by galloping inflation and the erosion of the purchasing power of the small purses which are still unable to meet the basic needs of their families and which are awaiting establishment of local markets and official points of sale.
The big challenge will be to prevent speculators from regaining control of the market and playing with the prices of other products by causing shortages or justifying this by problems with the importation of raw materials. The only remedy remains the multiplication of control operations.
Market regularity
The examination of the market supply situation in basic products and the control of prices, as well as the continuation of the execution of the program of economic control, in particular during the month of Ramadan, were at the center of a meeting chaired by the Minister of Commerce and Export Development, Kalthoum Ben Rejeb, and the presidents of the Consumer Defense Organization (ODC), Amar Dhaya, and the Tunisian Organization for Informing Consumers, Lotfi Riahi, at the during which, the Minister affirmed that her department took all the appropriate measures to ensure, during the holy month, the regularity of the supply of the market, in various agricultural products, and in terms of strategic stocks, in addition to the continuation of its economic control program. Ben Rejeb specified that the structures of the ministry are working hard to supply the market with all consumer products, to improve the offer and to supply the products which register a shortage, by resorting to the import in order to regularize the market, specifying that the rhythm of supply of the market in vegetables will be normal. Regarding the question of the rise in the prices of certain basic products during this period, the supervisory ministry is preparing to deploy additional efforts to combat overruns and illicit practices likely to harm the public interest and consumer rights, maintain monitoring and follow-up to prevent and remedy any shortfall in supply that may be identified at national or regional level.
The Ministry of Commerce also intends to offer the consumer several choices, such as the possibility of generalizing the creation of points of sale from producer to consumer within the framework of the social and solidarity economy system.
What to expect?
This means that preparations are well underway to welcome the month of Ramadan in the best possible conditions and to guarantee the availability of basic necessities on the market in view of what characterizes it today.
Many citizens are already wondering what to expect during the holy month of this year in terms of price and availability of products, some of which are currently absent from the stalls? Will the Ministry of Commerce succeed in its mission to regulate the market? How to restore order in a sector plunged into a crisis for years?
The soaring prices of consumer products as the month of Ramadan approaches also worries the consumer, who is lost between reassuring words and the reality on the ground.
The market situation has become unmanageable and the coercive measures taken by the authorities to eradicate the phenomenon of speculation have not yet produced the expected results.
In this sense, instructions have been given to mobilize all the actors and operators concerned and the various competent control services with a view to intensifying and strengthening monitoring and control activities at the level of the wholesale and retail markets. and rigorously applying regulatory measures once morest those responsible for offenses or illicit practices identified by the control commissions and services. It is also regarding ensure the proper functioning of the markets, the fluidity of distribution circuits and the transparency and regularity of commercial practices and actively fight once morest all speculative maneuvers and other prohibited or fraudulent practices, likely to increase prices unjustifiably and damage to consumers’ purchasing power and rights or to their health.
The firm hand of the State should show its effectiveness in the days to come. May things continue for a very peaceful Ramadan…
