Director of Lulu Group International Dr. Mohamed Althaf
Doha: At a time when the countries are grappling with the issue of high inflation, the prices of essential food items have remained stable in Qatar, thanks to efforts made by the government and ample supply of local food products, Director of Lulu Group International Dr. Mohamed Althaf told The Peninsula.
However, he said, there is moderate rise in the prices of some non-food items because of disturbance in global supply chains and logistics, which are hit hard by pandemic. “The prices are expected to ease in coming months with improvement in global supply chain,” said Dr. Althaf.
He said that one of the main factors for stable prices of essential items is the control mechanism which is put in place by the government to regulate the prices.
“The Ministry of Commerce and Industry issues daily price bulletin to determine the prices of local fish and vegetables for retailers in a way to safeguard interest of producers and consumers,” said Dr. Althaf.
He said that the production of food items by local farms has also played a crucial role in stabilising the prices in Qatar.
“The government had launched many initiatives and projects to boost the self-sufficiency of Qatar in production of certain fresh food items such as vegetables, poultry, dairy and fish.”
Explaining the reason behind rise in price of non-essential items, Dr. Althaf said that global factors are responsible for inflation.
“The demand for goods has surged as the recovery in global economy gained momentum due to fall in the Coronavirus cases in the middle of last year. The strong recovery caused shortage of containers in the shipping industry, leading to shortage of items in countries around the world. However, the prices of these goods are expected to decline with improvement in global supply chain issues,” said Dr. Althaf.
Talking about the efforts taken in Qatar, Dr. Althaf said that during last few years, the government made special focus on increasing local production.
“The initiatives were taken to set up partnership between major retailers and farmers to market the local produce in a very organised manner. The results of these initiatives are now visible as products from local farms can be seen in the shelves in the stores of all the major retailers.”
Speaking about the contribution of Lulu Hypermarket in promoting local produce, Dr. Althaf said that according to the report released by the Ministry of Municipality, Lulu emerged the biggest seller of local produce in 2021. “We are running two programmes to market local agricultural produce and deal directly with farmers apart from seasonal promotions and dedicated corners to promote local produce,” said Dr. Althaf.
He said that availability of local products has also helped Lulu to cut costs and offer fresh products to customers.
“Local products cost less for customers compared to items imported from other countries because of low transportation cost and less wastage. There is worldwide trend now is to eat local produce, which leads to increased sale of local products,” said Dr. Althaf.
