The Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili spoke about inflation and explained, several weeks ago, he instructed the National Competition Agency to scrutinize the commodity pricing.
“I was wondering to what extent the importers were decent and whether such profit margins charged by importers were reasonable. The findings of the study are truly alarming and I wish to share the preliminary outcome of it with our society. I instructed them to look into the main commodities and it turns out that rice or buckwheat, pasta, sugar, salt, and vegetable oil have a 50, 60, 70 or 80% mark-up incorporated within the retail prices. I am not yet referring to the sales price for end consumers. These are afterward topped with retail price differences. The ultimate mark-up end up being 25 or 30%. Thus, our citizens have to pay for goods with a 100% mark-up at the end of the day. It is, of course, categorically unacceptable!” stated Garibashvili.
The Head of the Government of Georgia instructed the respective ministers to meet the food importers and find solutions for high prices on commodities.
“On our side, the Government of Georgia and authorities at large does their best to improve the situation we have in the country and to maintain the achievements. At the same time, such an attitude from importers is absolutely unacceptable. I thus wish to instruct the Ministers of Economy, Finance, and Agriculture at the Executive Government Meeting to immediately establish Work Groups and summon all the large importers to start the scrutiny into the issue and ultimately carry out the relevant response measures. Maximum in two weeks, I need to have a complete picture of the situation on my table with relevant solutions!” stated Garibashvili.
