The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission Commissioner, Paulus Ain stated that consumers will have to dig deeper into their pockets when purchasing a packet of Ramu Sugar product.
This comes after Ramu Agri Industries Limited’s announcement on increasing its Factory gate prices for its refined sugar products by 5 per cent, commencing 1st of June.
The ICCC Commissioner, Paulus Ain said upon ICCC’s assessment of information provided by Ramu Agri Industries Limited, the prices increase is mostly driven by in-country costs, particularly its domestic production volume which is greater than its import volume.
Commissioner Ain said given Ramu Agri Industries Limited’s high domestic production volume, despite a reduction in international prices recently, this may not have a significant bearing on Ramu Agri Industries Limited’s domestic process.
ICCC have observed that Ramu Agri Industries Limited’s has been keeping its prices constant from 2018 to 2021, while international sugar prices have been increasing during that period thus giving an indication that Ramu Agri Industries Limited’s was not sensitive to movements in international sugar prices.
However since December 2021, Ramu Agri Industries Limited’s has been gradually increasing its factory-gate prices between 3% and 5% as the global inflationary pressure continues to persist in the domestic economy.
Mr Ain said the ICCC is equally concerned about the increase in prices since sugar is a basic food item for all Papua New Guineans.
The ICCC, under its price monitoring role, monitors the prices of popular Ramu Mill White Sugar 1 kg packs at the factory-gate level and at the retail level, against irrelevant international benchmark prices.
