According to the minister, consumers often feel that products in shops are too expensive. However, he stressed that consumer prices largely depend on purchase prices. When importers have to pay more for products abroad, this is reflected in retail prices in Suriname.
Baasaron explained that importers may sell their products to shopkeepers with a maximum profit margin of 15 percent. Shopkeepers, in turn, may apply a maximum profit margin of 25 percent. “So if the purchase price for the importer and shopkeeper is high, the price for the consumer is also high.”
The minister stressed that the ministry monitors the profit margins applied through the Economische Controle Dienst (ECD). According to him, the ministry cannot simply intervene by lowering retail prices. “The price is determined on the basis of the purchase price,” he clarified.
Dependence on imports drives up prices
According to Baasaron, the work of the ECD is complicated by Suriname’s heavy dependence on imported products. He stated that approximately 80 to 85 percent of the products consumed in Suriname come from abroad.
“If products are expensive abroad, we will also pay high prices in Suriname,” the minister said.
Baasaron therefore called for an increase in domestic production to reduce dependence on imports. According to him, the structural solution to high consumer prices lies not only in stricter controls in shops, but above all in stimulating local production.
“The problem must be addressed at its root, and that is not the prices in shops, but the country’s low production,” the minister stated.
