Supermarket prices ‘unfair on producers and consumers’

Prices of fruit and vegetables at Cyprus’ supermarkets are “unfair both on producers and consumers”, Cyprus Consumers’ Association chairman Marios Drousiotis said on Wednesday.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail, he said supermarkets are currently making “unjustified profits”, having increased the prices on produce for their consumers, but not having seen equivalent increases in their outlay.

“If a producer works for four months in the field to cultivate and harvest their product to be paid a comparatively small fee by a middleman who then goes on and makes a large profit, that is hardly fair,” he said.

He added that for this reason, his association planned to carry out a survey “to see where the problem lies” in terms of increased prices for consumers and comparatively stagnant amounts being paid to producers.

“The survey will allow us to clarify whether middlemen are making unjustified profits at this time, as, at the moment, the difference between the prices paid by consumers to supermarkets and by supermarkets to consumers is far too large,” he said.

At the same time, supermarkets’ association chairman Andreas Hadjiadamou insisted that the profits posted by supermarkets in recent months were not unjustified.

“If you look at our profit margins compared to those of other businesses and other types of shops, you will see that our profit margins are actually much smaller. Our profit margin is typically between seven and eight per cent, rising maybe to 10 per cent when we are lucky,” he said.

With this in mind, he said the price rises had in fact come due to consumers demanding higher fees for their produce.

“It’s been hot, and before that it rained, and so producers didn’t see the harvest they were expecting,” he said, while saying that on some occasions, there had been “unjustified price increases on the part of producers”.

However, despite this, he said, “we do whatever we can to control price increases”.

The consumers’ association disputes this, however, having earlier published the average profits made by supermarkets on various local fruit and vegetables.

Local bananas, for example, are being sold in supermarkets at a 171 per cent markup – more than two and a half times the price – compared to the price paid by supermarkets to producers, while cherry tomatoes are being sold at a 120 per cent markup.

Strawberries are being sold at a 107 per cent markup, while aubergines and carrots are both being sold at a 97 per cent markup.

The consumers’ association’s figures were calculated using the government’s e-basket application.